Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-04-03

* ] climax Of glory.
4 |. ! ! !.
INK - Exc We ter a u
XAl - soldier whose
Ul Wyk.,sa taking off the
m I \ 49, o;her. day was
l. M VIII heraldod by local
!. n \ ! w. biographical no.
I('l I III tees about the
~ N }SX1% length Of a page
sn ~, Ia in a child 8 prim-
sx ,;rr..s,ia sst! er was one whom
~ future genera
tions must class with the fighting Put
mans, Waynes and 81 arks Of the Revo-
tuition. The life ste ry Of General Francis
C. Barl,H is the history Of the Second
army co. ps, and General Barlow had as
much to do with making the history Of
That famous body Of soldiers as any man
in it, AMI perhaps more than any, not
Excepting Hancock himself. Barlow was
there first; he was there last, and with:
out such gallant ]ieutenants as Barlow
neither Hancock nor the corps would
have ac..oyed the distinct Oh in battle
which fully entities the latter to be call
ed the "Old Guard of the Union army.
Barlow led in every charge of that corps
but one, and then he was lying W ounded.
Barlow, Fl st of all, was volunteer,
and that means that he had to fight
again as hard and achieve again as
much as West Point graduate before
he could obtain chances for distinction
and the promotions which would open
up other chances to him. How he won
his first chance is told in his own off,
cial report of his first battle. This re-
port, by the way, is one Of the curiosi-
ties Of thai kind Of war literature. The
battle was the second day at Fair Oaks,
when General Howard was ordered to
take his brigade out and try to recover
ground which the Confederates had cap
tured the previous day. Barlow's regi-
apent, the Sixty. first New York, was
one of the four under Howard. Howard
started with two regiments only, the
Sixty first and Sixty fourth New York.
Early in the action Howard was dis
abled and turned tie command Of these
two regiments over to Barlow. This is
Barlow's account OF his first steward
ship:
After advancing some $50 yards we came upon
The -'Pennsylvallia volunteers brlskly en-
gagng tho emmy. I requested Colonel B
TO cease firing that we might pass in front OF
him. This WAS done, and we advanced upon
the enemy, who was Drawn up in line before us
and kept up q heavy firing. After advancing
some rs yards beyond Colonel BIS regiment
halted among thick underground. Not will.
irg to deliver our fire III! til VIC could sec those
firing We then moved forward in excellent
order some IoO yards, meeting with heavy
fire, but not seeing the cn, n.y. VI. til sufficient
distinctnesS to warrant, in .ly opinion, our
halting and renewing tn" fire. On arriving
upon tho crest Of a hill wltE:n some 20 yards
Of the road running i. ~: - the railroad
and directly opposite tho (io.mer) camp Of
Casey's division, which the enemy had occu-
pied, the battalion was h.itcti, t4.n enemy be-
ing plainly in 81, hit Ey t.. ~, :iGc, and at
once opened fire, receiving very heavy ono
On return. This c0ntinl!s i fer u considerable
time, ana it was There ti:;.t til principal loss
occurred. We drove tho cnuAAj back and he
ceased firing.
The loss of BarloW's own regiment
was 10 killed and wounded, 25 per
cent of lis fighting strength. Every
American soldier recalls at the proper
lime the Bunker Hill command, "Wait
ill you SEQ the whites of their eyes, ="
when the enemy is advancing, but how
many of the thousands of the fresh colo
nels and embryo brigadiers of the last
war had the wisdom and GOODNESS to go
on still hunt for the whites Of their
enemies eyes through swampy forest,
saked by the fire of unseen riflemen?
Most biographies state that Barlow's
gallantry at Fair Oaks was rewarded by
q generals star. That is untrue. He
was a colonel at Antietam, in command
of demibrigade in the Second corps,
which included his own regiment. In
fact, it was half Of the Howard brigade
Of Fair Oaks and the peninsula. It is a
matter Of we'll known history that the
Second corps divisions Of Sedgwick and
Richardson made one Of the most des-
perate charges Of the day at Antietam.
Richardson was killed while driving the
fiery A. P. Hill from the famous sunken
road which American valor christened
Tor all time the "Bloody Lane. Bar
low was wounded in struggling forward
toward the sunken road, and then and
there earned that brigadier generals
star.
Another we'll known story of Antietam
is the gallant fight Of the Irish brigade.
Barlow, with the Sixty-first and Sixty
fourth New York, rushed to the aid Of
those plucky Irishmen. He attacked the
Confederates lying behind the bank Of
the snnken road, capturing 800 prisoners
and battlefags. Then, seeing the ene-
my advancing upon the right Of the Irish
brigade, already terribly cut up, he
changed front under fire and attacked
the new enemy, sheltered behind stone
wall. At some distance from Barlow,
npon q knoll in the orchard and corn
Held, the Confederates had planted a
battery to sweep the approaches to the
bunken road. They hurled canister and
spherical case upon Richardson's men,
md shot of the latter struck Barlow
q the groin. giving him most fearful
wound. I $500
The Second corps established its rep
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