The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-04
BY GEORGE LANGDoN K1LMER
Copyright, 1897. by S. S. Mcclure CO..

Copyright, 1897. by S. S. Mcclure Coz
July 4. 1868. cuts figure in my rec
objections that reduces old rs down to
the vanishing point" said veteran Sin
clair at Vicksburg day reunion.
Hear my story and then judge
whether l am a worse patriot for this
touch of heresy. l tell you that when
saw the long line of white flags flash
out along the confederate ramparts at
Vicksburg. about 10 o'clock in the
morning of July f. 1868 | felt as | can
imagine one would feel upon hearing
the trumpets of the archangels ringing
in the dawn of The Thousand Years
of Peace 1 am not a visionary; it was
practical question for me. a breaking
of a nightmare that had tortured me
for weeks. 1t was a reprieve from
death sentence, so TO speak, for thous-
ands of my brave comrades. and no
man in that army knew better than
myself the battle terrors that were
signalled off by those welcome Fourth
of July flags of truce.
You know that General Grant had
given an order that the whole army
should charge all along the line early
on the morning of July 6. l knew ex-
actly what that order meant for US. I
had gone over the confederate
Dreastworks in the charge of
and was one of three survivors
of little squad of 10 who got back to
our lines in trim for another fight.
Perhaps you have never heard of our
little soldiers battle in the bastion of
Fort Beauregard that day. We were
led by sergeant. and, as there were
no shoulder straps TO be glorified. the
deed is barely mentioned in history.
General Grant speaks of it in mis- off,
hrIf he CT Of he Wi Of-
pant has never been told. There were
only II of us, and five were killed.
seven wounded and two got out I'M
harmed.
THE GLORIOUS SECOND
IOWA.
This battle of May % was our fierc-
est attack on the bluffs at Vicksburg.
We were fresh and enthusiastic then
because we had beaten everything that
stood before us on the way up to that
point. Soldiers like to win, and if they
can keep on winning there is no flag
ging in courage and no hell they will
not storm while the enthusiasm holds
out. We all thought with orr COM
mander that it would be easy to push
on into Vicksburg, and as the line
moved forward that morning through
the tangled vines and thick growth OF
canes and saplings over the knobs
and ridges in front of Fort Bea Iregard,
it seemed to me that, rough as the
pathway was, it was the path of glory.
Our regiment, the Twenty-secOndI Iowa,
led the assault on Fort eBauregard.
We belonged to McClernand's corps,
and we alone pierced the enemys line.
Sheltered by a crest in front of the
fort, we awaited the signal, and at the
sound of the bugle leaped forward into
full view of the enemy's marksmen.
The fire we met there was simply in
fernal, but still the corps moved on
to within about 80 yards of the con-
federate ramparts before it came TO a
halt. Our colonel. William Nj. Stone.
was shot down. and seeing That the
men hesitated for a moment: but Lieu
tenant-COlonel Harvey Graham seized
the national flag and rushed forward
in front of the line. About 80 of the
men kept at his heels and with him
leaped the ditch of Fort Beauregard.
The staff was planted on the slope of
the wall well toward the crest. and
there. in full view of our army, it re-
manned for nine hours. Underneath its
folds took place the desperate struggle
of which i carry a souvenir upon my
body and the remembrance of which
is to this day at once the saddest, the
most thrilling and the most glorious
of my life. You may think that TO
see men killed at your side and TO have
their mute and upturne1 familiar faces
before your eyes for hOE.s should choke
down every other emotion. but it is
the struggle in which they fall and the
glorious fight they make for life and
for the fiag that cuts deepest into the
The presence of the flag of
the Twenty-second that day, floating