The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-06-11
He Risksd His Life.

He had worn the gray i'll the days OF
civil strife, and now he was III gay
New York with thousands of other Con
federates to honor the memory Of the
conqueror and friend of the South, Gen.
Grant. Some who wore the blue were
gathered around him as he told the
story. Said he:
Its the story of u hero we'll worth
tellin. 1t was Oh May is, lovely day,
in 1864. Gen. Grant was after us hot
and heavy; but he struck us at strong
point, and the stormin columns We're
engaged in a deadly cross-irin'. Bullets
whizzed around like snowf1akes do in
blizzard times in these parts. Your
lines melted away under the storm of
musketry, grape and canister that
swept the intervenin' space. You didn't
stop to remove your dead and wounded
from the smokin' field. At once our
skirmish line was thrown out to watch
your movements, and was located at a
point where the slaughter was most
fearful. Our men had hastily dug rifle
pits to protect them from the sure aim
of the Federal sharpshooters. and dead
and dying men We're heaped up even
to the edge of those pits.
I'm one Of the pits We're found four
OF five members of Company H, First
Regiment South Carolina Volunteers.
An ungainly, angular, red-headed lad
was among them. His name was John
NJ. Nichols, and he hailed from little
Carolina town in the beautiful Pied
mont belt. The wounded had been
lyin' for hours unattended. The sun
beamed hotter and hotter upon them,
and they We're sufferin' terribly from
pain, loss of blood and thirst. Not fif-
teen feet from the rifle pit protectin'
the South Carolinans lay mortally
wounded Federal officer.
Water, water! he cried. will no
one give me water? Just one drop,
that's all. I'm dying for want Of
water
GAS the day wore on his cries, instead
of subsidin', grew more pitiful, and it
and more. Finally Nichols cried, with
the tears streamin' down his cheeks:
"'Boys, can't stand this any longer
I'm going to take the poor fellow my
canteen of water
Everybody tried to dissuade him. TO
show him the danger Of this undertak-
in someone stuck hat on the end Of a
ramrod and held it above the pit for an
instant. Instantly dozens Of bullets
from the guns of the Yankee sharp
shooters passed over their heads as a
reminder that the Yanks We're still in
the ring.
"In the meantime the dyin' officer
moaned on, Water, water. Just one
drop, somebody, please. Only one tiny
drop
''The tender-h hearted boy could not be
scared out of his determination. After
maxim three unsuccessful attempts he
at last succeeded in clearin' the little
embankment Once on the other side it
was an easy matter for him to throw
himself fiat upon the ground between
the burrows Of the cOrntield where the
battle had been waged. He crawled
slowly along and got as near to the
dyin' man as the protectin' burrows
would allow; then, breakin' a stick
from sumac' bush, he tied his can
teen to the end of it and handed it into
the sufferers hands. Talk about graf.
itude! 1 never heard gratitude ex-
pressed as that Federal officer express
ed it Not man who heard him had q
dry eye. The boy soldier returned as
he had come, amid hailstorm of bull
lets. When he reached the edge of the
bn 10, hi =
the track for him, and with a mighty
leap he was among his friends once
more without so much as q b1Ier
scratch to call to his mind his heroic
act. That was the kindest and brayest
deed l saw durin' the whole war IT
was no act of impulse, but deliberate
ly calculated risk of his own life to
give aid and succor to his enemy.'
A Stor" of the Petersburg Mine.
General Horace Porter tells the fol-
lowing anecdote of the explosion Of the
Petersburg mine in his "Campaigning
with Grant" in the Century: A sur
geon told us story, one of the MANY
echoes OF the mine affair, about a pris-
oner who had been dug out of the crater
and carried to one of our field hospitals
Although his eyes were bunged and
his face covered with bruises, he was
in an astonishingly amiable frame Of
mind, and looked like pugilistic hero
OF the prize-ring coming up smiling in
the tWenty-seventh round He said:
III jest bet you that after this I'll he
the most unpopular man in NV repi.
ment. You see, appeared to get sta art.
ed a little earlier than the other hovs
that had taken passage with me aboard
that volcano; and asI was comm down
l met the rest of 'em a-goin' up. and