The Portland daily press., 1894-06-06

unlmpoftanG letter from the war depart
ment, which had been my talis1nan thus
far. Then and there I first heard soldiers
talk of what had been done and what had
not been done in that day. knew before
hand that, in the push toward Richmond,
we had been flung back at Fort Darling.
did not know till came there exactly
how the command was impressed by this
delay.
But in she headquarters circle 1 found
nothing but confidence, and very soon
saw that I was to understand that we
should have taken Richmond but for the
heavy fog of the day of battle and some
other infelicities. / think now that this is
probably true. The fires were kept burn
ing, and we sat and chatted there hour
after hour. When we had been there per-
haps two hours, up came my friend of the
generals staff, and with sufficient profan-
ity exercised the roads over which he had
ridden.
He had never been there before. Gen
eral Butler heard him through and then
said, But here is Mr.. Hale, who has been
here two hours The soldier turned on
me- little crestfallen, all the other mem
bers of the staff sufficiently amused and
then he asked me, with another oath, how
iOoi1o o1iC w dy- oclU we IOllOWSu UI6
telegraph wire" And from that day was
rather a fayorite with the staff for this
civilian snub on gentleman who was not
q fayorite
Meanwhile somebody had been ordered
to pitch tent for me, and I suppose about
IL O'Clock went to bed in my new quar-
tiers. had slept an hour, however as it
proved, when was awakened by the firing
nf had orJc E,,s,,
as 1t proved afterward they were the heav-
lest guns which have ever heard in my
life. Of course wanted to jump up but I
said to myself: at will seem very green if
I walk out on the first sound of firing. 1
suppose this is what came to the front
for.
IF they want me, they will call me, and
shall hear firing enough before I have
DONE" So turned over and tried to 80 to
sleep-did go to sleep-and was awakened
again by louder and louder firing. All this
lasted, suppose, perhaps an hour. Then
all was still, and I went to sleep for the
rest of the night.
You are awakened in camp, il you are
at major generals, by the bugles of his
cavalry escort, and the next morning I
heard their reveille, also for the first time
washed myself, was already dressed, of
course, and in little while an orderly
told me that breakfast was ready. I met
at breakfast Captain Laurie, fine old
officer of the navy, whom had known a
little in Boston. He saidtome: "And how
did you like our firing last night, Mr..
Hale?" I said that to me, as civilian,
it seemed very loud but supposed that
that was what had come to the war for
and did not get up from my bed. Laurie
answered, as if he would rebuke me for
my ignorance, II have been in the service
80 years, and never heard such firing be-
FORE" I found then, for the first time,
that the whole staff had been up and on
horseback, had been at the front to try to
find out what this firing was and had re-
turned almost as much perplexed as they
came.
1t was thus that it happened to me that
spent my first and last battle in bed I
was acting on the principle of doing the
duty which came next my hand and obey
ing all the orders which were given to me-
had not run away. I was pleased with
that And if had not personally received
the surrender of three or four battlefiags
that was my misfortune.
had occasion afterward to hear mucil
of the testimony and to read all the rest
of it which related to this remarkable
battle. If you will read the history of the
time, as told in the Richmond newspapers
and those of New York city, and will put
them together, you will learn that on that
night a reconnaissance was sent out from
cur lines into the tangled shrubbery which
separated our newly built works from
those of the rebels. You will learn that
the rebel guns moved down these columns
as corn is moved down before tempest
Or, If you read northern newspaper, you
will learn that certain columns of the reb-
Ell troops who were named, were worse
than decimated by similar artillery from
our works.
Every word of this was entirely false In
fact, there was very heavy cannonading
from the newly erected works on both
sides. AS have said, it lasted an hour
Much of it was from heavy guns, which
had been landed from the navy to
strengthen the battery which we had near
the river But as the result of it there was
never any evidence that a rabbit was
enthusiastically no drop of human
blood was shed in that encounter of giants
How it happened SO late in the evening
do not know, but what happened was
this: A party of ladies had been entertain
ed on board of one of our ships of war As
they left an officer, with the gallantry of
his profession, asked one of the ladies if
she would like to see how gun was fred,
and to do pleasure to her fired one of the
guns into the darkness. At that moment
everything was on the qui vive ashore, and
our land battery men, eager for something
to do, finding that one shot was fired,
thought another had better be fired and
nod 4Eo Al, IL, IL.