Morning journal and courier., 1892-07-01
Stories OF Gettysburg.

A great deal has been written about the
big old Pennsylvania barn which stood on
the field of Gettysburg. 1t has become his
toric, and cuts no small 6gure in all &C.
counts of the bloody engagement. Amy one
who has read a description of the battle
knows that in this barn were $50 Confed-
crate soldiers, and that they had a clean
sweep at the advancing Union soldiers as
they came across the field. 1t was por-
tion of three companies which made this
charge on the old barn, and the troops
were led by Captain Newton N. Brooks.
The robs had clean sweep at us as we
charged ACROSS the field for half mile"
said Captain Brooks to the writer the 9th
er day, "and we had TO grin and stand it.
Strange to say, only a few of our men were
killed in the charge. IL was when we got
to the barn that the fun came The Con-
federates were ON the upper floor and the
only way to get within was to climb up an
old ladder. / ordered my men to go up.
They didn't seem inclined to obey. why
don't you go upF l asked. They looked
at me as if to say, why don't you go upF
1t all flashed over me in a minute, and to
| hesitate would have disgraced me. 1 saw
that it WAS my duty to command them to
| follow, not lead. We hsd to take q single
| file up the ladder. put on a bold face
and started up the ladder You can't ina
| gine how felt Us / started up. There was
| nothing else TO be done, however, and had
| to face what thought was certain death.
AS l climbed up the ladder step by step,
| felt very spotted / expected as soon as
put my head above the floor to be sent
sr,,,, l.ar r IL
the head with a muskst. / didn't go up
| very fast, and when / got the floor put my
head through and looked around. 1 drew
| a long, breath when / hadn't been clubbed
| or shot, and felt better and drawer. The
rebels had skipped out and gone back to
| their lines. Only one man was left He
was crouching down in one corner and
| surrendered as soon as he saw US
"a funny thing happened at Gettys-
| burg. 1t was while we were behind the
old stone wall. The battle was not on,
but the Confederate sharpshooters were at
| work, and every now and then ball from
one of their guns would come whizzing by.
We were waiting for orders, and l had
rsked up the last grain of coffee I could
find and was making a cup of coffee over
| little fire. just as it was ready, and
raised it up to take drink, Eipl came q
ball from one of the shsrpshooters, and
my cup of coffee was gone. Madl Well,
I should say so. l didn't know where I'd
get another.
sit was at Gettysburg, too, while we
were intrenched behind the stone wall,
that one of our shsrpshooters did good
work. The Confederate sharpshooters
were trying to pick off our officers We
couldn't see where the shots came from,
and it was very annoying. One fellow in
particular seemed to pick out our squad
as marks for his rife, and every time a
head showed above the wall, whiz! would
come bullet. had one of the boys to
hold his cap up to be shot at, and by this
means and the use of field glasses we final
ly located this fellow in tree. We could
not see him, but the smoke from his gun
as he fred at the cap. One of our sharp
shooters got ready with gun and glass.
The decoy cap was put up again, and az
soon as up, zip! came the bullet from the
rebels gun. 1t was his last shot. Just a
he fred our man returned it, locating him
by the smoke. The next day buried the
Confederate where he fell, at the roots of
the old oak"
Captain Brooks was captain of Company
@, Twelfth New Jersey regiment, Second
army corps, under General Hancock. he
is now superintendent of foreign mails.