The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-26
A CHICKAMAUGA BOY.
Decoration Day Story for the Youth.

iron man, as he clutched the bride of
/ a riderlesS horse, and sprang into the
empty saddle. Two horses had been
/ shot under him, and 200 of his men
had gone down never to rise again,
but still he sat unmoved in the awful
tempest. At last the fire grew even
hotter; one unbroken sheet of flame
enveloped the little band, and step by
step, with their faces to the enemy,
they were swept back by the mere
force of numbers. Then the father
said to the son. Go, my boy, to the
rear as fast as your horse can carry
you"
Il can't father" answered the lad,
you may be wounded.
Never mind me; think of your
mother. Co." said the father peremp-
torily.
Obedience had been the rule of the
boys life, and now, turning his horses
head, he rode back to the hospitals
H.
The hospital was a few tents clus-
tered among the trees, a short dis
lance in the rear; and thither the
Union wounded were being conveyed
as fast as the few medical attendants
could carry them. There the boy dis
mounted and set about doing all he
could fol the sufferers. While thus
engaged, he saw the remnant of his
fathers regiment emerge from the
cloud OF flame and fall slowly back to-
wards the woods behind them. In a
moment horde of rangers poured
down on their two TANKS, to envelope
the little band Of heroes. The boy, at
a glance, took in his own danger. The
hospital would inevitably be surren-
dered, and all in it be captured.
Springing upon the back of the near
est horse, he put spurs to its sides,
and bounded away towards the near
aSt forest. But it was a clumsy beast,
not the blooded animal that had borne
him so nobly through the days con-
f1ict. Slowly it trotted along, though
the rowells pierced its TANKS till the
blood ran down them. The forest was
still a long way Off when the rangers
caught sight of the boy and the sleepy
animal, and gave chase, brandishing
their carbines, and yelling furiously.
The boy heard the shouts, and sluns
himself along the flank of his horse
to be out of the range of bullets; but
not one of the rangers offered to fire,
or even lifted his carbine; for there is
something in the breasts of the rough
est men that puts them in love with
daring; and this running with score
of rifles following at ones heels IS
about as dangerous as a Steeple-chase
over a country filed with pitfalls and
torpedoes.
Soon the rangers feet steeds encir-
cled the boys clumsy animal and one
of them seized his bride, crying out:
Yer a bully IN; jest the Quickest
chunk of a boy L ever seed
Willie was now a prisoner, and pru-
dence counseled him to make the best
of a bad business; so he slid nimbly to
the ground, and coolly answered:
Give me hundred yards the start,
and III get away yet-if my horse is
slower than a turtle
I'm burned if we won't" shouted
the man. 81 say, fellers, give the boy
forty rods, and let him go scot free
if he gifts fust to tn timber"
''None Nv yer nonsense, Tom" said
another. who. from his clothes, seemed
some petty officer. Luck at the boys
cloes? He's son ter some Nv the big
uns. I'll bet high he b'longs ter ole
Linkum hisself. I say, young I'm,
hain't We ole Linkum's boy@-'
Il reckOnv' answered Willie, laugh
ing. in spite of his unpleasant sur