The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-08-26
INCIDENTS Of
SPOTTSYLVANIA
BY LINDSAY r. JENNINGS.

BY LINDSAY r. JENNINGS.
! II was during the winter of 1888. l was
travelling in the Northwestern States
doing soliciting business for an East
crn house with which was engaged. that
there was a violent snow storm, which
so blocked the railroads that there was
no travel and n general suspension of
business. | was on my return home, af-
ter having been delayed several DAYS
longer than L had expected and had
reached st. Louis, where | intended to
stop only few hours when the storm
came. Finding that | would have to re-
main perhaps for n day or two. as was
! hen thought by the railroad officials. be-
fore the trains could resume their sched-
ules, | endeavored to pass the time as
pleasantly as | could. There was quite
number of travellers detained at the
same hotel at which | had stopped, all
If course strangers to each other and all
trusting that on the morrow the roads
would again be open and that we could
depart to our several destinations, where
was decreed otherwise, for just as we
were feasting on the near prospect of the
eaization of our hopes, the storm which
had previously lulled now began to rage
with the utmost fury, the wind blowing
, billiards and driving the thickly falling,
binding snow up into miniature noun
tains, the thermometer registering two
degrees below zero. A deep feeling of dis
ny, ni,,f, on,,t LII 4
my discontinue can be imagined.
hough inly in part, for | had been long
ing to be with my little family, whom |
had not seen for nearly three months,a and
TO take into my arms little stranger
i whose advent had been announced to me
by kilograms a few days previous. Our
crowd of detained travellers soon became
submissive to their fates and were be-
taken with the feeling as on shipboard
| hat we were all akin. We were soon ac-
quainted and passing the time very pleas
antly, so that our imprisonment was in a
large measure Invested of its previously
imagined torture. Among my fellow trav-
elers was n man to whom | was attract
ed from the first by his fine physique, his
noble bearing and cultivated manners,
/ hearing evidence that his early training
| had not been neglected.
At least, this was what | thought and
when the ice of non-acquaintance had
been broken and | had been in his com
pany for some time, | found that | was
not mistaken when had set him down
in my mind born gentleman. In years
J he was little past fifty; his once jet-black
hair and mustache showed a few streaks
of the inevitable gray, but his handsome
face and lustrous eyes bespoke a youthful
heart. His neatness of attire, his candor
and chastity of speech and manners
would elicit of strangers anywhere the
verdict of a well bred man. While he and
/ were engaged in an interesting CONVEX
sation in his room at the hotel, where |
had come to spend part of the evening at
| his invitation, | noticed him suddenly
/ turn aside, placing his hand to his hip
and frowning as if intense agony. This
/ was but momentary, and as he regained
/ his composure and readjusted himself in
/ his seat, | asked him what the trouble
| vas. He replied that at times, though not
often he suffered the most excruciating
pains from an old hip wound received on
The memorable twelfth of May, 1864, at
! Spottsylvania Court House, and proceed
ed to relate some facts of his war expert
ence and incidents of the battle.
| War is terrible evil, said he and yet
| there are some of our people who are
| ncouragng war with foreign nations as
| { we had not lest enough Efe, blood and
| reasure in our great civil war. If those
Who were engaged in this war had known
| much of the horrors Of war before en-
| listing as they afterwards learned, the
Federal and Confederate armies would
have been numerically much smaller. 1t
Xas my senior year at college from which
] would in a few months have graduated
| with distinction, when President Lin
| coins first call for troops came, and on
the impulse of the moment | gave up my
college honors and entered the army. |
do not believe that my action was
prompted so much by patriotic motives as
by a youthful ardor, n craving for eX
element, in which | suppose | was not
different from thousands of others if the
truth is told. | was soon commissioned
junior second lieutenat, a position of
which l felt very proud. | was in the
rout at Manassas, after which / was but
little active service until Mcclellan and
essayed to enter Richmond. | attempted
the same thing in turn with Pope, Burn
side and Hooker, but invariably found
Lee, to whom / was always willing to ac-
ord wisdom Of thought and action, in the
way, impolitely protesting against the
project, and showing his aversion in such
way as seriously to mar the pleasure of
the enterprise. Each Of these Federal
captains after his unsuccessful effort,
in Difference to Gen. Lees opinion in the
matter l suppose, desisted from any
further attempt to take up his abode in
Richmond, went home and hung up his
hat and sword on the hall rack for a sea-
son. | often felt that l would like to
follow their example, but then the posi-
ton which they held in relation to the
government and the public was not iden-
teal with that held by me, for my con-
duct would have been mistaken for a lack
of patriotism and fealty to the cause of
the Union, or really to the cause of the
niger" as was subsequently developed
My soldierly qualities had not attracted
much attention, nor had / attained to
any high degree Of military glory, for
my achievements had not been of that
kind which might be termed brilliant
until the fateful Sunday morning, the Bird
of May, 1868, at Charlottesville. 1t
was on the day preceding that Jackson