The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1897-12-31
A SOLDIER SANTA. CLAUS.

IL VVLUlku Vluliu VLtlUV.
All day long we had been Oh the march
over the frozeh highways Of Vitgihiat-a
cavalry column 200 strong out OH scout.
War rs well as peace had it's Christmas.
Back in winter quarters there were hum
dreds of boxes to be unpacked on the
morrow, and there would be thousands of
letters with Christmas greetings. We an
ticipated and talked Of these things as
the column picked it's way over the frozen
mud and carried alarm to the homes of
people made wretched by the red hand of
war.
There was no burning, no destroying.
We wondered if sentiment dictated the
order. On almost any other day barns
given up to the flames, and war would
have laughed at the old men and women
and children left unsheltered from the
bleak December winds and flying snow
flakes.
Now and then we encountered an enc
my's picket at IL highway bridge. or
u crossroads. A few scattering shots
which, perhaps, emptied Il saddle or two
and then we We're upon them and they
were dead or sent to the rear as prison
ers. Now and then some bushwhacker,
feeling secure in his retreat in the woods,
would send Il bullet into the marching
column. and then a score. of bluecoats
would dismount and rush" him, and his
corpse would be left unburied amidst the
tangled underground.
The dusk of a winters evening is fall
ing, and candles have been lighted in the
farmhouses, when the head of the home
returning column suddenly strikes a scout
ing party in gray dawn up across the
road. a dozen shots ring out-we catch
the hoarse commands and yells of def
ance, and all is over before those in the
rear know what is going on. Fifty-blue-
coats have charged down upon and over
the score of Confederates, killing, wound
ing and driving, and the road is clear
again. There are men lying dead-there
are wounded calling out. Let the enemy
bury his own dead and care for his
wounded. Our dead and wounded go on
with us.
In the gathering darkness, with the
snowtlakes flying faster, we believe that
as he swaps about in his saddle and final
~ pitches headlong into the roadside
ditch. The bullet and the fall benumb
him, and he is lying beside dead Con.
federate as we ride away. 1t is not a
victory-not defeat-a trifling incident
which will hardly be reported by the
colonel in command. War, is selfsh-piti-
|
dead after battle to get the dead out of
sight of the living. A flying column can
march away from it's dead and save the
work of pick and spade.
Twenty rods away from where the
Confederates had formed across the road
was farmhouse, and gathered about
the hearthstone were a mother and three
or four children. War had burned the
barns and stacks, and swept away the
nd 4hn horI ho1 cd
the crops and carried off almost the last
mcrsel of food. War had taken the hus-
band away, and on a hundred different
occasions had made the widow and the
children fear for their lives. Aye! they
had been cruelty used and terribly har-
raised, and yet they had kept track of
the months and the weeks and days and
knew that Christmas eve had come.
There were stockings already hung
for each stocking after it's owner was
asleep. There had been days and nights
of peace, and the mother was thanking
God in her heart that Christmas was to
see no bloodshed, when there came the
reports of carbines, the shouts of men,
the gallop of horses, and her heart
choked her as she gathered her children
in her arms and crouched in the darkest
corner.
assured her, she crept to the door and
peered into the darkness. She could
not see. the dead and wounded ly-
ing on the highway, but she knew that
men had fought When soldiers fight
there are dead and wounded left be-
hind. The wind swept over the fields
with cutting edge, and the snowflakes
thickened with the fall of night, but the
woman CROPPED her way down the path
to the gate and looked upon the frozen
road. There were dark forms lying here
white in their shrouds of snow. The
children cried out to her, but she waved
them back and went down among the
dead and wounded. Here is figure w.
ing on its face-dead and cold. Here is
another on it's back, with arms
stretched out and eyes staring I'D into
the darkness-dead as the bullet tore
through his heart Here is third, lying
on it's side. legs drawn up and arms
aooye Its cloven skull-dead of a down
stroke of the sabre
"Dead-my God! all deadr' cried the
woman as she went from corpse to CORPSE
ana paused moment beside each one
No-here is wounded man. It is
corp. Troop. He moves his foot and
signs and groans. The cold has brought
nun back to life, but he is wounded in
suc H1p anu cannot crawl away. He will
freeze to death if left lying there. The
children are too young to be of assistance,
and what is to be done must be done by
the woman unaided. In after days she
will not remember how she gripped the
wounded Federal by the shoulders and
dragged him over the dead, out of the
highway, through the swinging gate. and
up the path to the house. In the dark
ness the blue and gray uniforms looked
alike. The thought did not occur to her
that she might be saving the life of an
enemy-aye! even one Of those whose
hand had set fire to the barns year ago.
1t was only after she had dragged the
grooming, half-conscious corporal into the
cabin and shut the door that she noticed
the color of his uniform and held I'D her
bloodstained hands to exclaim:
He was the only one left alive, and he
is Yankee!'
First dismay, then momentary regret,
then pity. That was the woman of it,
but it would have been so with fighting
Confederate as we'll. The children cried
out in fear at sight Of the uniform they
had cause to dread and hate, but the
]