Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-07-28

The artillery galloptng into position.
the force of Federals opposed. They,
too, have longed for Il battle in which
the infantry should have no part, and
the oft expressed wish is about TO be
gratified.
There is no advantage of position.
Two Thousand FederaIs, 9, 900 Confed-
crates, and each has battery number
ing six pieces. Clusters guns could
reach the gray horsemen as they deploy,
but every piece is silent. A charge by
half his command across that snow COW
cred plain would have swept the field at
first and crushed the Confederates back
into the narrow highway to become
panic stricken mob. No charge was or
dered. The man whose name was to be-
come household word before the end
of the war and whose life was to be
spared on 20 fields of battle that it
might go ont with the shouts of Indian
demons ringing in his ears sat his horse
and watched and waited. He had come
| to the brigade of stalwart Mich;ganders
few months previously fresh from
West Point. He had been called a boy,
and men and officers had taken no pains
to conceal their sarcasm and distrust.
Two or three times he had led them in
a dash there, but little fighting resulted.
He would test them now, and they
should weigh him in the balance
Boom! Boom. Booml The Confeder-
ate battery is the first to open FIRE, and
it is promptly responded to. The very
first missile is a percussion shell, and it
drives its way into the honse so lately
occupied by the living and the dead. and
in its explosion brings wre, k and ruin.
Twelve guns are belching their death
missiles across the open space when a
sudden cry rises to the lips of a thou
I sand men. From the western edge of
! the plain, where the pines grow thick,
woman suddenly appears TO view.
She is bareheaded, and her hair is fly
ing about her shoulders. She has neither
shawl nor cloak, and her dress is rag
ged and torn. She has stick in her
hand, and she waves it as il it were a
sword in the hand of man and starts
at wild run for the eastern edge of
the plain, right across the front of the
lines drawn up in battle array. The
cry of establishment which greeted her
appearance becomes shout of warming,
| but she does not heed it. Enveloped by
the smoke OF their guns, the artillerists
do not see her. Their hearing deadened
by the loud reports, they do not catch
the shouts uttered by Federal and Con-
federate alike. Round shot .and shell go
whizzing and shrieking over the snow,
and men waiting for battle shudder at
the woman S danger.
who's that? Halt! Halt! He can
never do it! He's sure to be killed!'
| So cried 500 Federals us Steve Bray
ton. mounted on the horse of a trooper
he had been asked TO hold for a moment.
dashed straight out into the plain to
head the woman off. He knew her the
moment she stepped out of the woods.
Uncle Ben had told him of the meeting
with Mrs. Baxter on the highway. He
had flung her down the bank with tre-
mendous force, and as he camo back
pected to find her lying there dead.
| Nothing was to be seen of her, however,
and his mind was greatly relieved. In
her fall, as was afterward known. the
woman's head struck stone, and the
| skull was fractured. When she strug-
gled up, she was no longer sane. She
had been wandering through the forest
for hours before she appeared on the
battlefield, but she encountered no one