Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-01-28

wings on either side, joining tips, each | while deploying, resembling the con tinued limo, from tip to tip, of some | huge distant bird. Now they arc in line of battle and once more move for | ward, while the Union battery drops | shells in their extended and less vulner. | able ranks. Marching over open fields, | crossing gulleys, now lost in wood, to | appear upon its other edge, bisecting | creek and road, slowly drawing coil, | a line of the ribbed sea sand" | streak of dust before a rising wind, the | southerners move steadily forward. Be- | fore them tho Union outposts give way, l retreating under cover of their guns.
 What arc those funereal looking wag- ons driving up and being stationed at | different points, those men, with n strip l of red flannel about their arms, scatter | ing themselves over the field? To the young enthusiast for war in the dis tance, who has been impatient to see a battle, these wagons. these men marked with red, composing the ambulance corps, getting ready to take care of dead who have not yet been killed, wounded who have not yet been hit, bring the first realization of what war means. There is none of the harsh music of bat tie about these grim looking wagons, these men waiting for victims, to bright on the eve and send the blood coursing through the veins. They go about their work in methodical fashion that dampens ardor as water quenches fire. They mock a soldiers ambition for glo- ry There is something in the calcula, tion, the preparation, to remind him that, after all, the gold lace, the feath- CTS, the martial music, are but to cause him, like the pampered sacrifice, to for get what he is. for-to be shot.
 But Mark Maynard was a veteran and had seen all this before. He gave the ambulance corps single glance, and then, looking toward a group of Union officers partly concealed from him by the smoke of the battery, saw one of them, with the stars of briga- dicr general on his shoulder, peer north ward through fieldglass. Turning his eyes in the samo direction, he could see a light cloud rising west of Ringold. He watched it and observed that oIso end of it was trending toward ford, north of Reeds ridge The officer soon shut up his glass, and ill another mo. ment aids were galloping away to give orders to retreat. 4 column of Confed- crates, extending for miles, were march ing to the ford to turn the Union left, and no time was to be lost in getting the little force back to the bridge.
 There is a quick limbering of guns, and skirmishers, cavalry, gunners, all hurry back over the ridge. At the bridge they find two regiments ready for any duty to which they may be assigned. They are directed to hold the ford to which the column of dust is moving Protected in that direction, tho force at the bridge awaits more confidently the coming of the advancing Confederates
 They have not long to wait. The skir misherS, thin line of gray, are soon seen scurrying over the ridge likG light scat tered clouds before white squall. The main line of gray is still tramping over the Pea Vine valley, keeping the slow pace of their heavy guns, The Un- ion men do not wait for tho stronger force. They turn upon these skirmiShers and drive them back through tho gap to their more slowly moving comrades. Mark Maynard. following with tho rest. soon again found himself on the ridge. There, in the valley below, was the line of battle ho had seen, but near | CT, a crescent shaped line extending from tho bank of the creek above the ford across the northern end of the ridge into the Pea Vino valley. Battleflags appeared above the line at regular inter vals Each one of Ia flags Maynard counted. indicating n regiment. He knew that the little Union force east of the Chickamauga could not stand against what appeared to bo at least a division of infantry. with a very strong force of cavalry. Nor was he wrong. | The scythe swung round as if moved 1 by the arms of a Titan, moving with its sharp edge the opposing Unionists They were sent flying back to the bridge and hurriedly put themselves into po- sition to defend it.
 They are ready for tho storm when it breaks, meeting it with artillery and charges of cavalry. The Confederates are driven, but by this time their artil- lery has been got forward and posted at point north of the bridge, where it can sweep the valley of the creek, the bridge and those whose purpose it is to defend | it.
 Now there is imminent danger. Will the little force on the east bank get over, or will it be cut of and captured by these overwhelming Confederates! It can only be saved by one portion charging the enemy while the others are moving by twos (the bridge will stand no morel across the structure.
 Among those who charged and re- charged to keep of the gray coats swarm. ing upon them on that eventful morn ing, always in the advance, in the spit.
 ting line of foam that precedes the bill
 low rolling upon the sand, Mark May
 nard was ever present. As each wave
 rolled from the margin of the Chicka
 mauga broke upon the southerners anG
 receded Q number of the Union troops
 had passed the bridge.
 Maynard waited till every man wal
 over. Then, stepping on the bridge, ht
 joined party who were tearing up thu
 flooring to prevent the enemy from fol
 lowing. At last these left for the shore and he remained alone. As board afte,
 board came up the Confederates pushed nearer, but still he worked on. Bullet
 sang to each other as they passed iron
 east to west and from west to east
 while the air was thick with intermin able explosions. At last all was don,
 that could be done Whether his actiol ; had so excited the admiration of his enc , mics that they had no heart to shoo } him or whether an overruling powe would not let him die, he at last turned unhurt and joined his comrades.
 He had been exposed as never before
 as he might never be again. but he haC not met death.
 oeIdom mas an army been III a nor