The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-01
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TWO KINDS OF EDWARDS.

The Story Told by Distinguished Com
federate General.
''There is vast deal of difference be-
sween the private and public courage
of some men," observed a distinguished
southerner, who won generalship at
Gettysburg.
ITO me the most painful illustration
of'this fact was in the course of the first
days fight at the battle of the Wilder
ness had two Mississippi regiments
in my command am, being native of
that state, 1 knew quite q number of
the soldiers personally. One man had
known for years.
FOR the first two years of the war
he hired a substitute, but he was free
with his abundant means in contrlbut-
ing to the scant exchequer of the con-
federacy Under the general conscrip-
( ton act he was forced into line. When
he arrived at the camp he came straight
TO my tent
81 was glad to see him, for I knew
him personally to be d man Of unques-
toned courage. He and my brother
had been at college together and after
ward during a political contest, IN
which ne was candidate for the state
senate, he had fought duel with his
whig opponent and my brother was his
second The men fought at ten PAGES
and he shot the wing down. though not
fatally. He was one Of those men who
gave no insult and brooked none, and
SO successfully had he come out of three
or four urprovoked personal encounters
that IN his county he was looked upon
as the champion fighter when he had TO
fight
well, sir, when that man came to
my tent, just before the battle of the
Wilderness, he seemed to be in a treInor
and not enough self-possession TO ans
wer my cursory questions about our
former friends. He was simply a man
scared out of his wits.
ignoring my questions altogether,
he said TO me: General, If / go into
battle I'll be killed. | know / will, and
have come to You to inplore you to find
something else that / can do. I don't
care what the service is. / viii even
hold the horses, drive d wagOn--any-
thing: but ] can not GO into battle to
be shot at, fer l just know that / will
be killed at the first fire.
II laughed at him and joked him for
his superstition, but frankly told him
that he must go to the front, for we
needed ten times as many men as we
could get. | told him that we should
probably have a battle the mex day;
that ] had been in every battle since
,he first Manassas and had not been
touched by ball or powder, and that he
should go along with me, and of course
hat meant he had TO fight As it
turned out, it was fight at close quar-
ters before got through with it.
my friend knew A. T. Hill, and at
his request / went with him to Hills
tent To my chagrin he repeated his
request to Hill to spare him the crucial
test of battle. Hill really seemed to be
amused, and iestingly said: II expect
you to kill at least ten Yankees to-mor-
row, and then / will see to it that you
are raised 10 a captaincy for bravery on
the field GO right along and win your
spurs, for it looks now as if we were to
have great battle"
Early next day we went into that
horrible death camp. My friend staid
in my tent that night, but l doubt very
much whether ne slept a wink. ] know
ne did not take any breakfast, except
pretentiousiy to drink some very in
ferior coffee that my cook hastily served
while our horses We're being saddled.
'We hurried into line and my men
seemed eager to get into the fight But,
sir, my conscript friend seemed to have
lost the power of speech. He automatic
ally followed me, and when l told him
that if we made charge on the enemy
he must be careful not to let his horse
throw him he shuddered and the tears
rolled down his cheeks.
I'VE were pushed right into the hot,
test of the fight at once, and, strange as
it may sound, ] do believe that the first
bullet aimed at us from the federal lines
struck my friend squarelv in the fore
head and he toppled off his his horse a
corpse.
His premonition' of sudden,d death had
come tragically true. and all that day
was depressed with the thought that ]
might possibly have saved that mans
life.
1.-THE next morning, before he was
buried in the long trench, | took from
his pocket a daguerrotype Of his wife
and his two children, son and
daughter and afterward sent it to his
wife. 1t would be cruel to give that
mans name; but his daughter, now
dead, became the wife of a congress
man. and was a belle in her day. The
: l.,
and singularly enough, has had his
affair of honor, and at fifteen PAGES
wounded his man, but not seriously.
Eyes, sir: there are some men who
will fight in a crowd, and then there
are men who won't.
quite contrary case to this, contin-
ued the general, was one which l
heard Gen. Braxton Bragg tell the last
time | saw him here in New York a
year or two before he dropped dead on
the street in Galveston. Tex He said
that the think happened in the Mexican
war, and if l recollect Alright, in the
battle of Beuna Vista. The soldier he
referred to was a Georgian and Gen.
Bragg said that personally he was the
most abiect coward he had ever known.
HE said that only few days before
the battle he saw another soldier slap
this fellows face and the blow was not
resented.
"'But that same man. that personal
coward, said Gen. Bragg, 'immortalized
himself on the historic field of Buena
Vista. The color-bearer of my regi-
ment was shot down. and TO my sur
prise, having witnessed the face slap
ping of day or two before, saw this