Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-12-02
The Ghost Of the Battlefield.

Charlottesville, our battery was at
tached to the division of A. P. Hill.
When we struck the enemy the divis-
| ions of Rodes and Colston, which were
in the lead, broke their lines before
A. P. Hill could deploy, so that we
simply followed in the wake of the
pursuit in column formation. We
proceeded along the plank road for
several miles, throwing a few shells
now and then at the flying enemy.
We then turned off from the road and
entered the forest and soon found
ourselves in that wild and weird section
of country known as the wilderness,
Night coming on and the battle and
pursuit having receded almost out
Of hearing of us, we began to look
around for a suitable place to so into
camp. We had been passing the dead
and wounded lying upon the ground,
as we rapidly followed up the battle.
and coming upon one of those small
openings that occur here and there IN
that section, we parked our guns
and bivouaced for the night. | was
sergeant of guard that night and was
to 90 on duty at midnight. The cor
poral had the first half of the night
and came to waken me at y o'clock.
We had three sentinels, one of whom
was over the guns that were parked
near the skirts of a dense woods. !
was sitting in the guard tent tryingtO
read an old newspaper l had picked
up on the battlefield by the dim light
of lantern, and had just noted that
the time was one o'clock, when |
heard the sentinel call sharply, Ser
geant of the guard, post number one
He repeated his call several times rap
idly as I ran toward his post. found
the man with his drawn sabre in his
hand, pale and seemingly agltated'
He said that while walking up and
down on his beat as he approached the
woods an object resembling a woman
clad in white had come out on to the
edge of the field and beckoned to him
and that it had happened twice be-
fore he called out for me, The scene
around was lonely and wild enough in
all conscience to arouse the supersti-
ton of most any one, but this man l
knew was one Of our staunchest SOL
diers aud confess | felt somewhat
puzzled. I remained talking with him
awhile, telling him that he was no
doubt mistaken, though instructlng
him to keep a sharp lookout, and
turned to walk back to the guard tent
when my steps were arrested by the
sentinel shouting out, Look, Ser
geant, there it is again" Running
back to him distinctly saw on the
edge of the woods what appeared to
be a woman, as well as could discern
in the moonlight, frantically waving
her hands and beckoning to us. Seiz-
ing the sabre out Of the sentinels hand
| ran towards the woods with all the
speed could, the sentinel calling af-
ter me, "for the Lords sake not to
90 AsI neared the woods the Two
man in white" disappeared along what
I found to be narrow path. | fol-
lowed on the run and had gone about
a hundred yards when pitched head
foremost over something lying right
across the path. Picking myself up
and STOPPING over to see what IT was
that had tripped me up / discovered
dead federal soldier. | felt ofhis face.
1t was cold and he had evidently been
dead some time. ! could see in the
moonlight that the blood had run
down and made a dark spot IN the
sand and his musket was lying by his
side. / then walked on a little farth-
er and discovered another, live one
this time and an officer. He seemed
badly wounded, his blouse was thrown
open and his shirt front was all bloody.
He heard my steps and begged pit
eously for water. Il will bring you
water" I said, and Fastening back to
camp / awoke the relief. ordered them
to get a litter, and catching up can
teen Of water returned to the wounded
officer and soon had him comfortable
in the guard tent. ArOusing our sur
geop, be dressed the wound and
staunched the blood and informed me
that had the officer laid on the field
another hour he would have died from
los. Of blood.
We sent him back to the hospital at
break Of day, and learned sfterwsrd
that be was duly exchanged. l re-
ported to the captain what had occur
red on my watch. he ordered me to
send out detail TO bury the dead SOL
der in the woods, but paid little ac-
oo,,-+ .ba rroroaD in white saving.