The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-03-21
DISCIPLINE IN THE NICK OF TIME.
A War Story with a Moral For the Sew
enth New York Heavy Artillery.

A War Story with "A Moral For the Sew
enth New York Heavy Artillery.
1t was the majors turn to make
q talk" He bit at the end of his
mustache for a few minutes while
the assembled company impatiently
murmured. Come, major cried
one of the younger officers. Some
thing about the war that came under
your own experience
I'VE We're lying before Deep Bot
tom, and the rain was $llling in
torrents" said the major, I'm
all my campaigning experience |
never saw the equal of that down
pour. And, what was the worst of it,
there was no way of avoiding or
lodging it. We had to stand out in
the open and take it. Some of the
command, however, had procured in
the n known only to veteran
troops several shelter tents and had
rugged them in position by sticking
their muskets in the ground for
poles. was then detached from the
regiment and was acting as assistant
adjutant general on the staff of the
brigade commander. l happened to
pass just about the time when the
troops were making themselves
comfortable. The enemy was pretty
near us, and we at headquarters
were looking for a brush, so l made
bold to direct the attention of the
regiment commander to this serious
breach of discipline.
cit will never do to permit those
guns to remain i'll that POSITION l
said. If the Johnnies make a dash,
they will gobble US ALL"
But observed the colonel,
there will be the devil to pay if l
order those guns taken up
"'It is in violation Of regulations
to permit them to remain where
they are, l observed.
"'You I right, declared the
colonel. He gave the command for
the regiment to fall %in-taking posi-
ton behind an old breastworks, a
little to our left and front. The
d%renching rain was heavy enough,
but it was gentle compared with the
food of profanity that broke loose
as soon as the troops heard the colo
nel's order. AS they were forming l
went up to the men of my old COM
pany and said that they ought to be
ashamed of themselves, that they
did not know how soon they would
be summoned before their Maker,
that they knew perfectly we'll they
we're violating regulations, and that
they were in the presence of the
enemy.
well, gentlemen, my words of
Reproduction were hardly out of my
mouth when we heard a few scatter
ing shots directly in our front from
our pockets, and then, before the
command to load could be given, we
got as lively a volley from a Confed-
crate regiment as ever | heard. The
Johnnies had expected that the rain
would drive us to shelter, and had
arranged this dash across an open
field Immediately in u front in the
expectation of catching us mapping.
The forming of our regiment at
this most opportune time, however,
upset their calculations, for before
they could get away we fired two
rafting volleys into them, which
drove them back faster than they
came.
Had the muskets of the regi-
ment been stuck in the ground when
the Johnnies made their dash the
entire command would have been
surprised and captured. As it turned
out, no casualties occurred, as our
troops were protected by the breast.
works. But the lesson was not lost
, on the regiment. 1t carried a whole.
some moral, for seldom after that
heard profanity from the Seventh
New York Heavy artillery New
!. York Sun.