The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-06-07

took his place as Leader.
We had our good and bad days Fun
and hunger was the makeup of days and
nights, weeks and months.
Bert Sons was the life and clown OF
the band and camp. One day while he
WAS passing through camp some one
called out
"Say, Bert, what's the matter with
your pants So" (He had boiled them to
kill ants or some other kind of insects,
and they had shrunk half way to his
kneeS)
Bert stopped, looked down, and said :
"Damfno. I've
CUT THEM OFF TWICE,
and they're too short yeti"
One cold, frosty night l heard a racket
IN the tent next to mine. | heard Will
cox say:
"There, I've fanked you this time "
"What have you done" said |.
ave fanked those lice"
"Well, how"
"Fve pulled off my pants and thrown
them out door"
We'll, that might be called cruelty
to animals; but sometimes patience ceases
to be a virtue, and a soldier becomes
hard-hearted.
As the old First Corps was the first at
the battle of Gettysburg Except the cav
alry), Capt. Wood came rushing back
and gave our Colonel the order to get
ready for a fight. The Colonel then
turned to us and said:
@Boys, fall out, and give US Yankee
Doodle"
Our regiment was into the racket be-
fore the tune was finished. The head
doctor came up and said:
"The stretcher corps is six miles in the
rear, and you will have to 60 in and help
carry the wounded"
Now things began to look dusty !"
for the band but we went to work, think
ing, as the BOYS often said on the march {:
"Left, left; l had good home when [
left"
A. L. Congdon, my chum, and made
a stretcher of fence boards and went into
the fray. The first man we came TO was
big fellow shot through both legs He
must have been full weight, by the way
he bore down. As we came into town we
were met by women and children with
tea, coffee, bread and butter, and all the
good things needful for hungry soldier.
The wounded man took piece of pie
In each hand, saying: Boys, it looks
good, but | can't eat it.
| never saw anything IN the news
papers about the heroism of the ladies
of Gettysburg. | saw girls not over II
years of age, their clothing covered with
blood from helping the wounded, not
minding shot or shell. Those ladies
were genuine heroines. God bless them!
How they did work. | saw one nice,
motherly-looking old lady whose house
was out in the midst of the racket
shells bursting in every direction,
wounded men lying thick around. She
seemed to forget all about danger in
caring for the suffering wounded. A
shell burst just over her head. looked,
expecting her to dodge, but she
DID NOT EVEN FLINCH;
she seemed only to think of duty. 1
thought that true heroism in the fullest
sense of the term. / remember there
was field Of two or three acres of wheat
Just back Of the house, surrounded by a
picket fence.
One thing that causes me to remember
the wheatfeld more distinctly, / suppose,
is on account of comical incident which
occurred there. One of our musicians
Ia detail from the ranks, whose former
record had been good in fight, broke
for the rear, things having become too
hot for him. He went over the fence at
jump. | could just see his head bob
bing up and down as he made time
through the wheat.
After the battle / inquired of him
what he was doing in the wheatfeld.
He said:'
did you see me? Was / making
good time?"
Itold him he ran like quarter-horse,
and asked where he fetched up. He
said he had only just cleared the fence
on the other side when battery officer
sang out:
90 Halt, there! Where are you
going?'
|" ] answered You might be able to
tell that by the direction | am running.
"'Then / have a job for you, said
the officer.
"'Take this saber and stand guard
over dismounted cannon
"He was soon called away on some
duty, when ] just rammed that old
saber in the ground and continued my
tramp back into town to eat pie and
cake with the ladies'"
On the third day Of the fight we were
sent back three miles on the Baltimore
pike 10 farmhouse near a white church
to help care for the wounded until they
were sent away to the hospitals. Ther
we were ordered back into Gettysburg
and went to work at the Express Hos
pital, where we
CARED FOR THE WOUNDED.