The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-08-26

my Judgment, for YVES in an awful state
Orwell, what tho boys nowadays call the
rattlss.' ] took q bzaoe, however, for !
thought Of my reputation, and gave the
necessary ordera We were under way half
an hour later, and, following directions,
marched due west, outside the camp lines
and the pickets. looked at my watch by
the glare Of the last fire. II was 1880
O'Clock. In few hours 1t would be dawn,
but then IL was all pitch dark. The road
was broad, gray streak, bordered By
black blotohes which as we passed resolved
themselves into dumps Of trees and b.
came hlotches again. The country was
billy, and the unevenness Of the road did
not improve the condition Of my mind. ]
had never smelled powder fired In battle
l had never seen soldiers In action. won.
dered what I should do II we were attacked.
I tried to ysmember the orders, and fool
ishly swore because had forgotten my
Textbook.
"The mon marched along silently and
speotrally. A sudden halt In front sent
my breath into my throat, but IL was only
o stump which had deceived Sergeant Sim
mons. We won't forward, ever forward, In
the darkness. An hour passed, then an
other We must have gone ton miles. The
east began to tighten. Soon the trees took
limb and leaf. The fences looked cold.
The sky became leaden and then silver.
Some Of the men began 10 eat hard tack.
Ahead was ridge where the road rose and
seemed to end. 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
/ should do II there was hand to hand
fighting felt for my sword, and oven
for my revolver, and when found them
safe I was ashamed and looked to see II
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
paDy 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 beep a mystery to
me why the rebel general who commanded
the brigade and a half never posted piokets.
He didn't, for when we got to the brow of
the hill we saw only the road stretching
down the hill, 0anked on both sides by
woods. ! ordered the men to take to tho
fields and go through the woods on the
right The men all debouched together,
rs of them. was In the center Of the COL
ump. Never shall forget the sight that
met my eyes. Below us, at the bottom Of
a green field, half mile away, without q
fence intervening, little village of white
tents, with the smoke rising from the
n,,t nhnp nd thrao
acres, 1t seemed. There were men In gray,
the first rebels we'd seen. My heart actu-
ally stopped beating for second. I 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.
II opened my mouth and yelled. The
next moment with cry, found myself
rushing down the field with my blue coated
soldiers against a brigade and half Of
Confederates l tried to reason 1t out as
ran. Over mo came wild desire for &C.
ton, slashing, blood. ! pulled out my
sword as ran, yelling like boy on q
holiday. saw the tents and scurrying
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
battlefags 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 I
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.
waved my hand and shouted. My mon
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
/. Not word, sir, said he, mot q word,
sir, and kept silent, but did lot of
thinking"
My friend paused again. He looked to-
ward sword and pair of captains shoul-
der straps which hung on the wall over
the bookcase
"Well," he continued, "the colonel told
the major general and he asked to be intro
duced to me, and he publicly compliment
ed me on my bravery. The whole corps
knew it, and was an object Of pride and
adulation. The 70 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
it had happened. In my attack of prostra-
ton I'd thought one order and spoken an
other, and the men, being green, had
obeyed. If they had been veterans, they
would never have done it.
"Thsre isn't much moro to tell, my
friend continued. "After the Gettysburg
campaign had ended General Meade met
me and said he was proud to know tho man
who had made the way for the --th corps
to advance unhindered. My major general
knew some of the people In Washington,
and there in two months wa1 introduced
to the president, and after little delay
he gave Inc the place which caused SO much
comment didn't want to take 1t, for
had gotten taste for campaigning and
rather fancicd it. AT last. however, I &C
cepted, but before did went to Presi-
dent Lincoln and, with no prelude, said:
"'President Lincoln, before accept the
place want to be honest with you, sir.
I've been troubled about it all along, for
my friends have been too precipitate with
this thing. Mr.. Lincoln, all that talk
about my bravery is nonsense. When l
saw those tents, sir, and those rebels ut
the bottom of that hill, was SO ID
scared that meant to yell run for your
livesr' and instead cried, "ChargeW And
that's tho truth
"Lincoln squared his big, lank frame
and looked at me with his broad mouth
twitching. Then he strobe up to mo and
shook my hand. MY boy he said, what
you've just told mo makes mo sure that 1t
was your right self which gave the wrong
order.
"And that's why I've always said that
you should never judge a mans merit by
his position in life. New York Tribune.
Three Thousand Languages.
Tho 70 races inhabiting the world COM
municate with each other in 1904 differ