The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-02-10
SPIKING THE GUNS.

SPIKING THE GUNS.
The regiment will be annihiated
observed the adjutant cooly. And
then III the same immovable tones,
he asked some one 10 pass him a
biscuit.
Curse you, shouted the colonel,
do you think | don't know that7
Do you imagine l fear getting
killed to morrow Do you suppose
| want to live on after what has
happened1 Its the eternal disgrace
of the thing that's cutting me.
Once comfortably shot, remarked
the senior major in easy philosophy
it doesn't much matter to me per
sonally where or for why l go down.
Not soul will be left behind to
care.
This last remark added tinder to
the blaze. The major was a peasants
son, who had hacked and thrust his
way up from the ranks by sheer
hard fighting. His commanding
officer was a noble of the old regime.
He had hoped and reasonably ex-
pected that the previous days engage
ment would give him a brigade,
and SO the f1asco had fallen all the
more bitterly.
1t seemed as though the very
stars in their courses had beer
battling against us. Everything had
gone wrong. The blame was not
ours. But this, in an army where
want of luck was the greatest crime,
told nothing IN our favor. Many
men had fallen and panic had seized
the heels of the rest. Which of us
initiated the run cannot be said, but
in the rush of some all had been
carried along, few, except perhaps
on or two of the older officers resist
ing very strenuously. The colonel
burning with shame, had gone in to
report. What precisely had been
said to him we did not know, but
we guessed with some accuracy,
although he did not repeat the
details. The gist of his interview
was that the regiment was to attack
again on the morrow, and if uu-
successful then once more on the
day after, and so on till the bridge
was taken.
Yesterday the thing had been
barely possible. Yet to day it was
far different. During the night the
defenses had been more than trebled
The Austrains swarmed. Enough
artillery was mounted there now TO
have demolished an entire army
corps advancing against it from the
open.
The deduction was clear. The
bravest men will turn tail sometime
and in our army which was TIE
bravest in the world, there had
during the latter part Of the cam
paien been more than one case of
wavering. An example accordingly
was to be made. Our corps had
been singled out for the condign
punishment. We we're doomed TO
march on the morrow to our
annihilation.
OF course the matter had been
put so at headquarters. There the
words ran: Most important strategic
point. Must be taken at whatever
cost. Your regiment will again have
the honor. colonel, and so on. But,
summed up bluntly, it was neither
more nor less than | have said. We
all understood the order of the letter
and there was not a man in the reei
mant who would hesitate moment
in carrying out his share. Each
private soldier, each officer would
march with determination to march
then his last. That gives the case
in nutshell.
But the secure knowledge that
there would be no sulkers along this
road to execution did not pacity the
colonel. If anything, it increased
his bitterness. 1t would make his
ungrateful memory last the longer.
He sat at the table end OF that inn
room where we had messed, with
folded arms and nervous fingers
kneading at his muscles. BY sin.
gular irony we were lodged in COM
fort there-we, who had got to go
out and die on the morrow-and he
must needs taunt US with it, as
though it were a shame for such as
we to have so to'erable a billet.
Myself, l was stretched out on a
sofa away by the far wall, and lay
there mutely, having but little taste
for the wordy savagrieS which were
being so freely dealt about. And the
night grew older without my being
disturbed. But the angry man at
the end of the table singled me out
at last, perhaps because my outward
calm and listlessness Jared upon
him.
Tired, Eugene1 he asked.
A little, sir.
All, | can understand it. kn0(
your activity today. You have mis-
taken your vocation, mon cher.