St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-26
THE LAST ROLL CALL.
One Survivor by the Name of
York.

York.
NJ. Quad in New York World.
Just an even 100 men answered
Here" as the sergeant called the roll
on the morning we awOke beside the
Potomac. There were young men, mid
dle-aged men, men from the town and
men from the farm. Men who go to war
to hight and die beside each other form
strong attachments. Companies and
regiments resolve themselves into CON-
munities which do not look with favor
upon intruders. There was an even 100
as we marched away-as we took our
first turn at picket-as we first sighted
the enemy-as we went into battle for
the first time. After the roar of the
guns had died away and the dead had
been buried only eighty-nine men all
swered ''Here"' to the sergeant's morn
ing roll call. The others were covered
up in the long trenches, and their loss
drew the living closer together.
y few weeks went by, and we stood
shoulder to shoulder in battle line again.
There were charge and cOuntercharge-
men screamed out as they were wound
ed-men fell dead and uttered no cry
In the gloomy forest, by the light of
campfire, the sergeant called the roll,
and now only seventy-eight men an
swered 'Herei' The red earth trenches
had claimed more victims, and the ties
between the living were drawn still
closer. When man has brayed death
with you that excuses a hundred short
cOmings in camp or on the march.
Then came Cold Harbor and the fall
ing back to Malvern Hill. Cannon
doomed and mnsketry cracked all day
fa nj ha nh Id
men cursed and groaned as they limped
away or fell helpless-men pitched for
ward with but single cry and died
with their faces hidden in the weeds
and grass. After Malvern Hill the ser
geant called the roll again-nOt the
same sergeant as before. but another
had taken his place-he was lying dead
in the thicketS at Fair Oaks-and this
time only tifty-twO men answered
"HereW
And so could you wonder that when
recruits came down to us we looked
upon them as intruders, even though
they were good men and true and had
come to help us win victories? What
did they know of our dead. of our weari-
some marches, of touching elbows with
US as we waited for the word to charge
the flaming guns? Their names were
called with ours. and we heard them
answer Here" But they were only
with us; they could not be of us. They
had come too late.
And after South Mountain and Antie-
tam and Second Manassas and Fred
erlckSburg and Charlottesville and
Gettysburg and the Wilderness the roll
was called, and our dead were covered
up and the other men were sent down
to take their places. We shook hands
with them and pretended to be com.
rades. but we had no ties with them.
They had not learned war with them
They had not learned war with US.
They could not go back to the begin
ning-tO our first dead. And at last
came AppOmattOx and the surrender,
and then peace and the return to Wash
ingtOn. We were almost full COM
pany again as we turned out on the
meadows of Arlington for the last roll
call. Upward of seventy living men
could have answered HERE" TO their
names.
Fall in, Company G! Attention to
roll callr'
It-was not the sergeant who had called
the roll after Fredericksburg, after
Characteristic, after Gettysburg. after
the awful graphic in the thickets and
swamps of the Wilderness. 1t was a
new man-One who had been promoted
before his cheeks had scarcely been
burned by the Southern sun. But he
had heard OF the ties which bound the
old veterans tOgether-he realized what
this last roll call meant to the survivors.
And from the musty archives of the
past he took the roll of the dead and
called:
"Anson--Armstrong- Armitage-Als
dorf!"
No one replied.
Berry = Bloomingdale - Benson
Barstow-Benham.
No one replied!
"Cary-Carter-C notwithstanding
-COmstOckH
No one replied
And so he called. and so the silence of
the death roll grew deeper and deeper,
until the living felt chill creep over
them.
"Young-Ye omans-Yager!"
No one replied!
"YOrki''
"Herel''
And so he of all was the sole survivor
the last living man of company G-the
only one who had the right to stand
there in that line and answer to the last
roll call. The Others-ninety and nine
were cTipDleS at home or sleeping their
leys. in the forests and the thickets of
Virginia.
Tie line cheered him as he stood
apart-the last survivor of a glorious
band which had fought in dozen bat
tles-but he turned away his head and
wept