The Irish standard., 1897-07-24
ERiN'S SONS IN WAR.
oD"rmau. s.ai 81, nul, sun.

H'' ituEI. htlu AZ toiphrl "a. CAMP
fire.symposium where nc topic mad been
the quprrols Of the nations ana the
breeding ground OF tile best soldiers
My lighting days mo over. and wars
and l7nlurs OF wars don rultlc ma. lie.
Turk and Grcels and Spaniard and Gu
ban hight II out; bu, If ever ireland
calls tor allies while ! i've sh" can
count on me for one hired substitute.
II II hadn't been for The exIlcs Of ire
land scattered through the army. noln
oflc"rs and men think more victims
would have died Of melancholy and
mental stasnation than from Con IL
crate bullets. One OF the first J. rrdi,s
10 Join my company Of voluu'eo.s, N
1851, was an lrishmuu named O'Gor-
man, who said that be was an ex arena
dl"f Of the British army. and probably
spoke The truth thus far, for he vas
camp model in soldicrly appearance,
conduct and discipline. His military
salute would have done credit % the
Queen $ Own, and. rs We had evely-
ihlhg TO learn about soldering, / nat
urally supposed that / had captured IL
prize in Grenadier O'Gorman. Ills
tales Of the part he had taken in the
Crimea, at Alma, Inkerman and the
Sebastopol rcdoubts raised the question
among Us novices whether this doughty
IRISH private of Colonel Socum the
trained West-Pointer whom we had Sc
, iected 10 lead us, would cut the wider
swoth through the Southern Confeder-
acy The odds We're heavy on the man
with the musket or course | bet on
my man, the pride of Company G. When
the makeup polish in which he pre-
scented himself at the recruiting rcndez-
vOus got rubbed off by camp life, OGor-
man proved to be far beyond military
age. In fact, he was over 60. Still our
faith i'll his proves was mistaken.
O'GORMAN'S PATRIOTIC ZEAL.
Bull Run came, and our regiment adj
| Eanced to within range OF firing and
| halted to reconnoitre the field. In q
| short time occasional bullets began
| whizzing over the line OF battle from
some point in the rear of a wooded
knoll Il few rods behind u.s. Without
raising an alarm, Col. slocum stroled
back in the direttion whence the shots
came. and to his surprise, there stood
the veteran of 1hkerman, sheltered be-
hind a tree and 'zealously firing away
bullets with his rifle held at an angle or
| 40 degrees, SO as. to bulk the missiles
over the crest of the knoll. AS soon as
he could suppress the desire to laugh
and properly control his voice the
Colonel gently hailed our model slaugh-
terer
":What are YOU doing here. O'Gor-
man? said he. in a manner, as 1t proved,
much too familiar for the battlefield.
The veteran took no notice of the
intrusion, but loaded and fired another
shot without a turn Of the head. The
question was repeated only to be again
ignored After seeing the third bullet
sent on it's useless mission Colonel Slo-
cum saw that it was time to drop the
role of an amused comrade and take up
that of a stern commander. Tapping
the eager grenadier smartly on the
shoulder, he called out in his most mar
tia tones:
"'Private O'Gorman. cease firing and
| report results to your SUPERIOR
Still without turning his head, but
| with a sbrllg that told of outraged dig
,tr, ;,r1,{ n al
brought his piece to carry with resn-
lutte bang not forgetting his St. James
! salute and answered, spirtedly:
""rwinty rounds. sir, I'm afther fir
ing; and, arrah, Colonel, didn't l give
| thin seccacrs fits"
"Well. Company c and it's commander
never heard the last of the Irish gren-
adler ut Bull Run, and soon afterward,
by order of the Colonel, our ideal war
rior was placed on permanent detail at
the regimental stables and served his
time out standing guard over horsciesh,
horse equpage and forage.
Another Irish officer who gave us
J good deal of amusement by his eccen"
trio and vehement attempts to be seri-
Gus and sollierly at times when the sit
uatiOn reminded one Of opera bouffe,
was the late Colonel Michael w. Burns,
CT the Second New York Fire Zouaves.
Burns was the exact double Of Custer.
except that his flowing locks were
brown Instead of golden, and, like Gus
| ter. he was Il peer among fighters. At
the siege OF Petersburg his regiment lay
! in tho trenches adjoining Fort Sedg-
wick, H. notorious hot corner which the
veterans who were so fortunate as to
survive u turn OF duty there nicknamed
Fort He'll After the explosion Of
| Rurnsides mines,y rumors OF counter
handing frequently alarmed the troops,
and every one was alert for the stealthy
tap-tap' and, drill OF the Confederate
miners under the ground beneath us.
"One night Colanel Burns invited a
party OF us tQi game of cards in his
tent. 1t happeneh that indications of
mining had been reported that day by
the outpost nsentinels. Every ones
nerves were I'M that we'll known cGndi-
ton called scary.) We started in to
make night Of it. From time to time