The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-06

pointing and seemingly inglorious. My
experience taught me that fear always
preceded the actual fight. 1t is annoy
ing to be struck when you cannot strike
back This is the way I used to feel
when I was a boy soldier. Now 1 eX-
pect 1 would be badly scared under all
/ circumstances and conditions. Since
the war l have heard a number of
/ braVe(0 soldiers say that they never
! felt better than when they were under
fire or in battle Such a man writes him
self down as an ass, and, if he ever was
under fire, it is safe to assume that he
was genuine coward
/ In the beautiful old town Of Platts'
/ burgh, surrounded by classic memorials
Of combat and separated by the waters
of Champlain from his ancestral heath
yet within sight OF its emereld hills,
found another Green Mountain war
rior, Gen. Stephen Moffit of the Ninety
sixth New York volunteers. Cen
eral Motifs badge of courage is not
an empty sleeve. A pair of well worn
crutches and an empty trousers leg
turned back nearly to the hip joint, are
his inseparable souvenirs of the con.
flict. Like General Longstreet and
many others, whom it would be merely
repetition to quote, General Motif
found that the best way to avoid show
ing off as a coward is to have some
thing better TO do, no matter how tri.
fling. Said he:
You ask me to give you my first
experience under fire; if scared, how
much, etc, etc.
L had my first experience under fire
near Franklin, Va. We had just en-
tered heavy timber after a march of
twenty miles from Suffolk The Con-
federates opened upon us from a four
gun battery. The fire was hot. but
ineffectual; although the shells flew
thick and fast, most Of them passed
over US. At the first note of the music
of the flying missiles, nature asserted
herself, and her first law was very
much in evidence. Yes, l was fright
ened, thoroughly frightened. At once
1 appreciated the fact that I was trem-
bling, body ard limb, and fearing that
my men would notice my trepidation, I
opened my haversack and took from it
a piece of bareback and started in
coolly % to MUNICH it. Hardtack was
never harder, or dryer, and how 1 got
it down and finally digested it, under
the circumstances, the Lord only
knows.
Did the fear pass off? No, not I'M
til the last whizzing shell had passed
over my head.
Il had a like experience in every en-
gagement. with but two exceptions"
Imagination has much to do and
perhaps is wholly responsible in cases
of uncomfortable battle fright Major
Orlando J. Smith of the Fourth Indian
cavalry told me of an instance of fright +
experienced beyond the reach of bull
lets. His regiment moved to Balls /
bluff the day after the battle, the men /
knowing the story of the slaughter At |
the crossing of the Potomac they saw
dead and wounded victims of the field. /
one particularly narrowing sight, a
corpse rolled IN a blanket and slung
to a pole. Two men bore the pole on
their shoulders with the CHASTITY bur- (
den swaying at every step Mounting
the bluff the raw Indian soldiers were
stationed under the crest with their
backs to the river, a second slaughter
pen should the enemy attack Distant I
firing could be heard and the men we've
scared with the fear of being scared
as the major expressed it. On coming
under actual fire he experienced no
fright equal to the one due wholly to
Imagination.
Past Commander Henry H. Adams
of Lafayette post, New York, respond
ed for the west, as representative of
one of Ohio's fighting regiments. the
One Hundred and Twenty-fifth, known
as the "Opdycke Tigers" Colonel Adj
ans served in the ranks as orderly
captain of scouts and staff officer.
You ask for my experience when I
was first under fire. 1 will say that
my ideals and recollections Of Napo-
leon and Murat were vivid, ana it
seemed as if we were to be glorified
and not hurt, and it was not until
warned by a shower of shot and shell
that 1 speedily sought shelter. This
at crossing Little Harpeth
river. in Tennessee, when our brigade
drove out Van Dorm in 1863. but it was
after having had an object lesson given
by the carnage of one or two sharp
fights and the anguish of the wounded
that ] realized the fear Of entering
into an engagement
My second experience will please
you. was marker at the head of the
division. which was marching gallant
Y. We approached Chattanooga and
suddenly we ran upon an ambuscade,
where the enemy were massed, and a
Folley was delivered which frightened
ne out of my. wits and / suddenly
-ound myself crouching behind my