The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-04-10

III III lIBlulb anu
Missouri showed the folly + longer delay.
Robert Anderson the aro of Sumter, had
been installed as United st ties commander
in Kentucky, with only a + az and a band
Of music to represent the n ljesty and pow
er of the government.
The first regiment to ma ch was the For
ty-ninth Ohio, and, as mi be imagined,
its reception on reaching L iusville was an
ovation of the kind that enthusiastic and
half scared people tender to their champions
and deliverers. The regiment was escorted
through the streets by vast concourse Of
representative citizens and then regaled
with holiday banquet at the Louisville
hotel. Such experiences are bright spots
in the life of a soldier, and fortunately the
scroll of the future cannot be unrolled
above scenes like that to mar the Joy of the
hour
a thousand men shouted responses to the
city's wild huzzahs, thousand men sat
down TO her loaded banquet tables What
must have been the feelings of those proud
hosts and grateful guests had it been pos
sible to foresee that ranks which might
never carry above thousand muskets all
told into battle would before the end of the
conflict suffer quite thousand battle
wounds; that over 200 individual soldiers
would be hit, over 200 receiving mortal in
juries, while upward of 200 more would die
from exposure and disease; that the final
record would show for every seven men
enrolled under the banner of the Forty
ninth one killed in action for every four
one cut off by bullets or disease, for every
two one struck by the enemy's fire. So
reads the record Of the regiment, and it
stands at the head of the Ohio troops in
point of battle losses.
The Forty-ninth was a Seneca county
regiment. Four hundred and forty of its
members were born in that county and go
were native Ohioans. 1t first met the enc
my at Shiloh on the second day. Its losses
there were not heavy, but twice during the
battle it executed the trying movement of
changing front under fire. So long as raw
soldiers can keep the enemy in view they
will usually remain cool, but once they
turn their backs for moment it takes the
nerve of a veteran to face about again.
Stone River was the first great battle
where the regiment had chance to prove
its mettle 1t was in the portion OF the
Union line of battle which was surprised
By an early morning attack and driven
fIom point to point notwit standing the
most stubborn and heroic IT istance The
two field officers present anC all the cap
ii ins of the 10 companies ere killed or
wounded before the gallan ranks aban-
doned the field. In one ra y Lieutenant
Colonel Levi Drake and Maj Benjamin S.
Porter went down almost tol ether leaving
the regiment without a conn lander
brakes death was the idea one for a sol
der An Ohio battery, KIN wn rs Good
81 rs, became involved n he retreat and
halted on a knoll behind the Forty-ninth,
tn its guns turned iowa d the enemy
Colonel w. II. Gibson of til Forty ninth
was acting as general of tn, brigade, and
h, ordered Drake to MAJ ch the regiment
beck to the cover of Good 'pe ds guns and
then form n new line of bait e. The noise
of musketry aud cannonudir was so ter
riic that commands coull II t he heard at
the distance of few fec ;, I'd Drake sig
nailed his instructions to the men by wav-
in : and pointing his sword. He took his
stand near Goodspeed's guns and was call
ing upon his men to rally alb ut him when
the fatal shot came
Goodspeed's battery played a part in the
next brilliant deed Of the rel iment, which
was on Thomas famous line of battle at