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

BY GEORGE LANDON KILMER
Copyright. 1896. by The S. S. Mcclure
Coz
With novelists who plume themselves
on their realism" a favorite subject
OF study lstterly has been the feeling
and conduct of soldiers under fire.
Patient. psychologist dissections of the
Soldier in battle, at which the en-
thralied reader catches his breath and
signs How truer' have made the for
I3ne Of more than one work OF fiction
recently. With such studies in mind
II may be interesting 10 read what a
lew actual soldiers chosen quite at
random, have TO say regarding their
own feelings in coming under fire
W hatever the realistic" novelist may
nave had the hap to give us, The actual
soldier, certainly, viii give-sus nothing
Sut the real thing.
General u. S. Grant said that the in
slant he heard the first hostile gun,
when down in Mexico with TAYLOR as
a sub -lieufenant, he felt sorry he ever
enlisted. Shortly afterward he Dor
roWed horse and rode into the thick
Of the fight against orders. From the
frank admissions of a gallant company
OF veterans of the civil war, who have
followed the example OF their great
commander and given up their inmost
secrets 70 the interviewer, the readers
of this story will infer that Grants ex-
peT1enceS III getting broke in" are
shared by adj men who have the stuff
IN them to make staying soldiers.
Fftz-JoGln Porter ives under Taylor
also. He smiled at my question and
said: i every case when shot passed
by l always controlled myself so as
not 10 permit the men to see that was
disturbed My first experience was
down with Taylor and recall case
in point Colonel Childs had a new
regiment formed in square, at Resaca
de la. Palma. and when the MeXicans
opened fire upon it the men began to
dodge. Colonel Childs told them to
stop it as it was unsoldierly to dodge
Taylor sat by on his horse, ducking
right and left at every bullet. Said he
to ChSlds: Dom t-stop-the- men Colonel.
Let-thedn-dodge-if- they-want-t It's
perfectly-naturai-yo -
Lees ''old warhorse," Lieutenant
General Longstreet, received his hap
tism under Taylor at the same time.
lie says that the first sound of dis
tant firing caused him 10 brace fer the |
ordeal But there was a hull before he |
was brought into action and in order |
TO keep his thoughts from wandering |
he took from his breast pocket a pic |
ture of The girl he had left behind. The
calm frank face looking into his dis |
PEELED all thought of danger and he |
went ahead like the man he aspired |
TO be.
My inquiries of the Green Mountain
boys, WHO made a gallant record as
fighters, brought forth some responses
which go to the root of this whole ques-
ton of battlefield courage. General
Lewis a. Grant, commander of the
First Vermont brigade, one Of the elite
fighting commands Of the Army of the
Potomac, said: 1T is somewhat diff
hcult to give my first experience under
fire. as l came to it somewhat gradu-
ally, and became a little used to it
before being thrown into q severe en-
gagemenr. And nay feelings were not
the same on all occasions. / disliked
very much to go into an engagement
and feared the result not only to my
self but to my command and the cause.
Generally the first experience of a bat
tie was that OF trepidatiou. but my
natural pride and feeling Of response
bility, and a know ledge of it's effect
upon the men overcame it, But it
sometimes took all the self-control at
NJ command TO appear calm and cool.
But this feeling Of trepidation never
asted long. 1t never extended {
through a battle
Gov. Urban A. Woodbury.. whose
mute badge of courage is an empty :
sleeve, recalled his first experience IN
Ter fire without difficulty, for it was
hen he lost his right arm. Said he: :
AS / emerged from the woods on the
pen field at the first battle of Bun
Run the enemy discovered US and COM E.
nenced firing upon US with solid shot
md shell. If / We're to analyze my
,wn feelings should say ] felt a great
ense of danger but not much fright
had no idea Of doing anything else
han to march straight ahead toward
he enemy, which 1 was doing at double !
uick when received the wound which !
aused the loss of my arm. I realized
Perfectly we'll what was going on about {
ne, the troops who were going off, and {
where the enemy was posted
Gen. Theodore S. Peck, a Green I
fountain soldier, who has a varied ex- G
and was one of STANDARDS |
Ulcers, first came under fire in a cav [
Try charge and skirmish. 1--WE were n
o excited and interested in chasing the @