The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-08-26

his boyish heart
thrilled with fresh echoes from the battle
fields of Napoleon and keeping the touch of
elbow on Cemetery Hill with survivors of a
combat waged 80 years ago, and that, too,
not as humble and an accidental partici-
pant. but as hero, credited with having
saved the day In one of the crises of the bst-
tie. The figures show that he had reached
the retiring age Of the service when the
greatest day of his life dawned upon him.
The axiom about old men for counsel and
young men for war was frequently dis
counted In the late war. General Mans
field. who was killed at the front of his
corps d'armee at Antietam in 1862, was 50.
General Wadsworth, another New Yorker,
who fought side by side with Greene at
Gettysburg and was killed while gallantly
leading charge in the Wilderness in 1864,
had scored 57 Robert K. Lee had reached
the age when most men have done signing
for new worlds to conquer when he stepped
to the front to marshal the hosts of the
Confederacy. for he was "a years old. and
what page he made In war historyl 1t
might be supposed that it would be hard
destiny for n Greene of the lineage of the
great Nathaniel, who had kept the tradi-
tions of the family and been trained to
arms, to be shelved among the home guard
with Sumter's guns booming and the whole
north marching on to the border, even II
time had scored 60 telltale notches on his
birthday book. Though young men were
plenty and the trite axiom on every lip,
the gray haired old regular, grandpa him
self, took down his grandpa's sword,
blade stained with the rust of Monmouth
and Brandywine and Eutaw Springs,
tai ID ota aoI I'D J<. a.
ington as leader Of the Sixtieth New York
volunteers.
The Sixtieth was rural regiment made
up Of farm boys, lumbermen and hunters
1t hadn't the luck or fortune to win place
among the famous fighting Three Hundred,
but was ready when called on and scored
the casualties on the other side 1t missed
the exciting campaign of the Peninsula in
1869, becahse the corps in which it served
was retained in front of Washington while
the main army was at Richmond. Before
the battlefield was transferred northward
Greene had become leader of the brigade
and commanded 1t at the battle of Cedar
Mountain in August, 1862. When the army
was reorganized by Mcclellan to drive Lee
from Maryland, Greene's brigade was as
signed To the Twelfth corps, and Greene was
a
At Antietam he fought the division over
five hours in the hottest portion of the field,
where charges were given and taken in
slaughter imaginable His division as
saulted the eremys line in a strip of woods
and routed 1t, then dashed after the retreat
ing Confederates into an open field raked by
artillery fire, met a fresh division of the
nd IN fha
pressed it back in a close hand to hand strug-
gle where the combatants crossed bayonets
and used their musket stocks for warclubs,
and penetrated the edge of second strip of
woods quarter of mile beyond the first.
There the Confederates had made their
stronghold among ledges of lime rocks that
formed a natural breastwork. From that
position the enemy was never driven and
Greene's men went farther and staid long
er on their charge than any troops engaged
in the assaults. One of his regiments lost
900 killed and wounded, the second highest
regimeptal loss In the battle. At times
while crossing the field between the two
strips Of woods Greene's men and the Con-
federates opposing them engaged in fierce
musketry duels at only 80 PAGES. When
Greene had carried his line of battle almost
to the second strip of woods, the Confeder-
ates rushed out In q fresh column and made
for his batteries. He distributed his infan-
try between the guns in a line dressed on
the axletrees Of the cannon. The daring men
of Hood and Stopewall Jackson marched on
in the face of the threatening storm to
within 20 PAGES. and then the fire opened.
canister belching forth at intervals and
continuous stream Of bullets from the
spaces between the guns With terrific