The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-06-17
Tentins on The Old Camp Ground
Or Go. G.. 10th VT. Vols. to the Front.
By Lieut.. Z. Ell. WHITE.
MO. al

great ulHCulCv was 10 keep the boys
from sleeping while on duty. There i;
limit to the endurance of men, anC
that limit had been reached before the
regiment was placed on the skirmi
line. Corp Edward Fitzgerald was
my assistant on this occasion, and one
of us would walk down the line every
half hour and awaken those who were
sleeping.
Two a. M, June 18th, was the time
fixed upon for the withdrawal of the
skirmish line An officer passed down
the line, and had the watches of all in
command set with his so that the en-
tire skirmish line would move at pre-
cisely the same time.
1 soon found plan for the with,
drawal of my men. submitted this
plan to Corp. Fitzgerald, and it met
with his hearty approval The plan of
withdrawal was this: To let the Cor
pOral begin at the farther end of the
line and send in one man from the first
post, then pass along to the second and
drop out another and continue on until
the end of the line was reached when
he would again return to the point of
beginning and send in another from
complish this in time we must COM
mence the move at half past one so
that we could have all the men at the
rifle pits at two precisely. | was to
form the men behind the pit as fast as
they would come up, and be ready to
repel an attack if one should be made.
When all the details had been made to
our satisfaction | received visit from
Capt. l.. d. Thompson. We talked of
the move and other matters until time
for him to report back to his headquar-
tiers, when he said "Sergt. you are in
very dangerous position. Have you
formed any plan for the withdrawal
of your men," / informed him that |
had and at once gave him all the de-
tails Instead of this plan meeting
his approval as L had hoped it would
he expressed his disapproval of the en-
tire plan in the strongest terms. He
gave me preemptory order to go to the
farther post at two o'clock move that
straight for the rifle pit and have the
other posts fall in in the rear as we
passed them. When at the rifle pit
move for the place of rendezvous four
miles to the rear as fast at possible.
In vain | demonstrated with him and
pointed out the danger of moving so
many men over the brush bridge at one
time when the cracking of single twig
would bring half dozen bullets from
the enemy. 1t was useless to argue
with the Captain. He was right and l
was wrong and as he left me he said,
Sergeant If you were to undertake to
carry out your own ideas i'll this case
that you obey my orders to the letter."
AS the Captain left l sat down by a
tree and nearly gave up in despair. |
cannot now recall another instance in
the three years service when it seemed
SO hard to carry out the orders of a
superior officers as in this case. / felt
that Company G.. would be nearly WHIP
ed from the "face of the earth" if the
order was obeyed.
AS | sat by that tree in complete de-
spair the ever trusty Corporal came up
He knew the Captain had been there
and when he saw how was cast down
he at once suspected that | had receiv-
ed orders that were not good. When
had given him the Captains order he
looked very much troubled. He said,
eff those orders are carried out we
will all go to 'Davy Jones' lookup to-
gether,' what can be the matter with
Capt. Thompson The remarks of |
the Corporal instead of depressing me
had the opposite effect and brought me
to my senses. | asked him what would |
be his evidence in case he was brought |
before court martial and his answer
was. II will swear that in my Judge
ment the order of Capt. Thompson is
wrong and if executed would result in
disaster to the Company" | then told !
Corporal Fitzgerald that would assume
the responsibility and Withdraw the |
men one at time as | had intended do
ing before receiving the Captains or
der.
| must confess to some anxiety as to |
the outcome which was considerably
increased by one O'Clock on account |
of the fact that Alonzo Bartlett was
taken suddenly sick with cramps and
was unable to walk. He would have
to be carried on the backs of men a dis
lance of four miles or be abandoned |
where he was. One of the good points
in Company q was the fact that there
was no shirks among them, and as a
matter of course they would not
think for moment of leaving a COM
rade behind, unless we should be so
hard pressed by the enemy, as to make
it impossible to carry him from the
field.
Promptly at half past one the move
ment began by Withdrawing one man
from Post No. and ordering him to
proceed at once to the rifle pit. This
movement was kept up until the last
man had been formed behind the rifle
pit But one shot had been fired by
the enemy and no one had been hurt.
The movement had been so well timed
that the last man took his place behind
the rifle pit at precisely two o'clock.
AS there was no indication that the
move had been discovered by the enc
my four men handed their muskets ov-
er to other Comrades while they took
the sick man upon their backs and the
march to the rear began. The four
miles were made in just one hour and
ten minutes and the sick man was
changed from the bodies of one four, to
another, no less than sixteen times.