The record-union., 1894-09-01

eartDY almost from Chattanooga to At
lanta, scared as with flame, blackened as
by deadly 1rOstS, was putrid deSOlate
desert. silent as its buried and unburied
dead!
On dress parade and in drill service,
even in occasional gallant brushes with
an enemy, the field artillery guidon and
MS tiny llag are well enough and pretty
enough as military trapplngs, but where
there are ceaseless battle and carnage, the
need Is desperate for every human OF the
guns.
AS | pleaded for a place like this,
Captain Cooper smiled grimly, took old
| Charlie for an extra saddle horse and
promptly turned me over to our most
doughty fighter. Sergeant Dennis McGee
OF the center section guns.
Faith, I'll put you where the inimy
nlverll clap eye on ye fur th' smolle!''
said Dennis with a wicked twinkle IN his
little green eyes.
And so ne did.
len be 'Number5,' yell be-" he added
sternly, "p thumb th' vint an fire tn
gun. AM moine my words, me lad, if
ye lVer let air IN Ter (the cannonj an
cause premachure discharge, or break
away on yer landyard afore l guy th'
word Ill just Imply th' six barrels o.
me revolver into th' small o yer poreen
bacl1v'
With similar engaging rallyings from
Dennis took my place at the cleaning
twenty-four FOUNDER and kept it TO the
end.
l do not know what the poet-sung
| bravery of battle heroes is. l remem ber
IL all as terrible dream where | knew
that death was behind. | simply strug-
gled with all the little might in me, al
most senselessly and altogether mechani-
caiIy to accomplish my atom-like toll in
the measureless tragedies of the hour.
oil thorA
chance for respite; no place for human
lZing companionsNip; no moments for
more than the dumb and ceaseless effort
TO DO and live and kill.
let If it were possible to intensity the
terrible strain upon mental and physical
being into keener activity | know that
the added impetus ever came to me, not
from the shouts of victory above the
groans of the dying, but from those
humber and to my boyish nature SUBJ
tier promptlngs to valorous sayagery in
| the approving words, glances or smiles
OF the officers and men about me.
Look at the fire in Little Buttons
eye"' Corporal Burr would laughingly
halloo TO the men of the right or left sec
| ton guns, as we were warming up to
some rafting engagement.
we took th1rty-seven positions at
Peachtree," Corporal Ez Carter would
| proudly retort, as he cut in two bar of
Daisy Dean," which he was endlessly
and plaintively whistling or singing in
battle or out, land Little Buttons never
lost grip at the gums wheel, never missed
tight vent and never got ratified with
his lanyardn'
"NO, and he never squealed when the
| big johnnie Rob yanked him, that day.
over his gun and was bringin' his saber
down on him like slicin' 'sow-belly,' am
| Irish Dennis shot the big Reb over him.
an they stuck there in the blood on the
sizzlin' gun togethern snorted Freem
Hartford. our brawny Number l, chuck
ing me under the chin and smiling en-
couragingly into'the already set features
of my tiny boyish face.
Faith, if we'd had Little Buttons at
Aughriin that's over agin Ballin-
asloe-" Sergeant MeGee would add with
| backward prophecy and a wise and SOL
| emn smile, ''ould lreland'd be ould Ire
land still. an not be beggared up!''
And so the running ire of half satire
and half compliment would flash among
the guns or between the limbers and
caissons, or be taken up by the sprawl
/ ing positions, while Big Andy, the Ger
man bugler, grave as a kaiser. would
| polish his bugle on his sleeve or silently
| nip comforting pinches of snuff. and
! Captain Cooper, Lieutenants Cunning
| ham and Pratt, and even handsome Or
| derly Sergeant Powers, would look
| ]
! 'We're not all regulation size, nor age.
nor dress, but we're fighters, lads, Little
| Buttons, one and alli'' or still bestow on
me glance half of pity and half of affec-
| ton, all of which-and never the thrill
| of victory or the triumph in a brave
enemy's defeat kept my diminutive be-
! ing and childish spirit in logged. tensest
| key.
say these things because always look
! back upon that time and upon that SOL
/ dier lad almostiaS separate epoch and
| distinct personality from those in which
! / have ever really existed, and also in the
nature of confession Of lneritless boyish
/ foolhardIness which won me whatever
| affection the rough and kindly natures
about me had in their inclination or
power to bestow.
In the lstless and idle September and
/ October days that followed Sherman's :
! great victory, which was really the begin
| ming otthe emu OF the American Civil\ya ar.
! Battery was encainped with various
other commands near the hamlet of East
| Point. a few miles south OF the city OF
| Atlanta.
Old Charlie and the little flag had been
| returned to me, ana to the triiiing duties
of guldon had been added the more on
| erous camp life exactions of company
clerk. In this capacity | carried and
| brought the mail to and from army corps
ceived the voluminous reports and briefer
| orders, and, in fact, gradually became a
sort OF general orderly for our officers
and mounted errand boy for our droning
| roadside camp.
This often brought me on various tri-
fling missions within the captured city,
While its activities Were very great
| through Sherman's reorganization of his
still secretly-pianned march TO the sea,
they were military activities, and to me.
boy though / was, the half ruined public
| edifices, the dismautled forts. the barred
or silent and empty shops, the avenues
OF leveled elms aud lines, the shell-r rid
died churches, schools and warehouses
and above all the dreary, ghostly homes,
closely suffered and barred or trans
| formed into slatternly barracks for our
soldiers, were among the saddest specta-
cles of the war.
This was intensified and still more
/ deeply embittered by the utter failure oi
| my cnivairous mission for the discovery
and rescue of Beatrice.
This charge had grown upon me as the
| sacred Mecca of my childish aspiration.
That white face of the father had haunted
| me reprovingly. The beautiful and in
nocent face of his daughter had beck
| oned me on.
Every shot or shell which had leaped
| from our believing guns upon the
doomed city, seemed to my Overwroughl
fancy mortal challenge to her tender
life. Even when the cry, ATLANTA is
ours!" went up from an hundred thou