The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-01-06

smother smile and puffed cloud Of smoke
into the air. Whom 1t had doated away,
be startod again.
"It might have been left to the discro-
tion Of an army pnckhorse as well as to
my Judgment, for l was In an awfal state
of--well, what the boys nowadays call the
rattles. / took a brace, however, for
thought Of my reputation, ard gave tho
necessary orders. We were under way half
an hour later, and, following directions,
marched due west, outside the camp lines
and the pickets. l looked at my watch by
the glare of the last fire. 1t was 1880
o'clock. In few hours 1t would be dawn,
but then II was all pitch dark. Tho road
was broad, gray streak, bordered by
black hlotches which as we passed resolved
themselves into clumps of trees and bo.
came blotches again. xhe country was
hilly, and tho uneyenness Of the road did
not improve the condition OF my mind. l
had never smelled powder fired in battle.
/ had never seen soldiers In action. won
dered what should do II we were attacked.
I tried to remember the orders, and fool.
ishly swore because / had forgotten my
fieldbook.
"The men marched along silently and
spectrally. A sudden halt In front sent
my breath into my throat, but IL was only
a stump which bad deceived Sergeant Sim.
mons We went forward ever forward, In
the darkness An hour passed, then an
other. We must have gone ten miles. The
cast began to tighten. Soon the trees took
limb and leaf. The fences looked cold.
The sky became leaden and then silver.
Some of the Inen began to eat hard tack.
Ahead was idge where the road rose and
seemed to end. l halted my company, let
the men close up and moved forward
again. / was still In high state OF nerv-
Gus tension, and still little ratified, as
you say nowadays. kept wondering what
l should do If there was hand to hand
fighting. l felt for my sword and even
for my revolver, and when found them
safe j was ashamed and looked TO see il
the men had seen me. We had come to the
bottom of the slope. What should have
done was TO have sent scouts to the top to
look over, but instead marched my COM
pany right up the road to the brow of the
hill, never thinking of the vast possibili
ties of the other side.
"Now, 1t has always been a mystery to
me why the rc bel general who commanded
the brigade and half never posted pickets.
He didn't, for when we got TO the brow OF
the hill we saw only the roaC stretching
down the hill, fiankcd on both sides by
woods. / ordered the men to take TO the
fields and go through the woods on the
right. The men all debouobed together,
75 of them. l was i'm the center of the col
ump. Never shall l forget the sight that
met my eyes Below us, at the bottom of
green field, half mile away, without a
fence intervening, a little village of white
tents, with the smoke rising from the
campfires, spread out They covered three
acres, Ii seemed. There were men in gray,
the first rebels we'd SEEN My heart actu-
ally stopped beating for O second l saw
my men standing with their mouths open,
lingering their guns nervously. They
looked toward me inquiringly, like lot of
children. A tangled idea took form In
my mind that we should retreat.
81 opened my mouth and yelled. The
next moment, with a cry, found myself
rushing down the field with my blue coated
soldiers against brigade and n half Of
| Confederates tried to reason 1t out as
ran. Over me came wild desire for ac-
| tion, slashing, blood. ] pulled out my
| sword as ran, yelling like a boy on a
| holiday. / saw the tents and scurryiDg
crowd of the gray men, which grew larger,
and then broke and ran in every direction,
thousands of them. When we got to camp,
not one remained. But we found three
battleflags and rifles and camp baggage
and truck without end. After / got my
breath / sat down and tried to reason 1t
out Then dim thought took possession
of me that II we staid there we should
probably he captured and killed, and l
was about to order a spirited retreat when
from out the woods broke crowd of blue
coats, and more and more. They stopped
stock still when they saw the tents. l
waved my hand and shouted. My men
waved their hats and shouted too.
"Well, when the colonel came up, he
looked at me and looked at him. Then
he shook my hand and said he'd take me
to Major General -. He would at once
sir. Yes, sir. A man who's brave enough
to attack and capture place like this, sir,
should be known, sir. But, colonel, said
l. Not word, sir, said he, not word,
sir, and / kept silent, but did lot of
thinking
My friend paused again. He looked to-
ward a sword and pair of captains shoul
der straps which huVg on the wall over
the bookcase.
"Well, he continued, "the colonel told
the major general, and he asked to be intro
ed me on my bravery. The whole corps
knew 1t, and was an object Of pride and
adulation. The 75 who went with me told
their envious comrades how I'd never hest
tated, but cried, Forward, charged when
I'd seen the enemy. Then realized how
1t had happened. In my attack of prostra-
tion I'd thought one order and spoken an
other, and the men, being green, had
obeyed. II they had been veterans, they
would never have done It,
There isn't much more to tell, " my
friend continued. AFTER the Gettysburg
campaign had ended General Meade met
me and said he was proud to know the man
who had made the way for the -th corps
to advance unhindered. My major genera!
knew some of the people In Washington,
and there I'm two months was introduced
to the president and after little delay
he gave me tho place which caused so much
comment didn't want to take 1t, for
had gotten a tasto for campaigning and