Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1898-10-06
Mr.. BoWser's War Record.

the old days of 81 suddenly ex-
claimed Mr.. Bowser the other evening
as he looked up from his newspaper.
1.-THE war r?" queried Mrs. Bowser.
"The war, of course. I've been
thinking all day that if l was only
FIVE years younger nothing should
keep me from going to the front. 1t
makes my pulses thrill to read of the
booming of big guns-the screams OF
shells-the heroic indifference Of men
under fire. If | were offered COM
mission 1 believe I'd 60 anyhow"
When the Bowsers were married
Mrs. Bowser understood that Mr..
Bowser had served in the civil war.
She also understood that he had gone
in as a private and come out as col
onel. Now and then he interested
her with descriptions of battles and
his brave deeds on the field. For the
first few months she implicitly believed
in all he said, as was the duty Of a
trusting woman. Later on, when she
began to read up on the war; she
couldn't make history and Mr.. Bow
ser's statements agree. By and by
he ceased to call himself Colonel
Bowser, or to talk of war, and she was
glad enough to have the subject
dropped. 1t had got so that she must
condemn every historian as a liar oil
conclude that Mr.. Bowser had never
been to the front.
eyes" continued Mr.. Bowser, as be
got up and walked around the room,
"Id like to lead regiment into bat
tie again. Lord but the excitement
of 1.-THE exultation-the glory
When I think of it l can hardly hold
myself"
Mr.. Bowser was very foolish man
to call up his war record and try a
game Of bluff on his wife. He should
have been warned by the queer look
she gave him and the silence she main
tanned, but temporary enthusiasm
made him reckless and he continued
LANDS but that day at Gettys-
burg-shall l ever forget it For an
hour we were under such hailstorm
of death that l did not expect man
in my regiment to come out alive.
Mrs. Bowser looked at him in a
dubious way, but had nothing to say
This piqued the old war horse, and he
turned on her with:
"Woman, did you ever wonder to
yourself what battle was like? How
you can sit there like a bump on a
log when they may be fighting and
cheering and dying within 10 miles OF
us is a puzzle to me. Why don't you
swallow that cud of gum and ask me
some questions p
81 will, she quietly replied.
"Were you in the late war;"
What What was in the late
war !"
"What regiment
"The Eighteenth Ohio, of course
I've told you SO fifty times over. AT
the battle of Antietam we lost l3O
men, and l was promoted from private
to sergeant.
"Where is Antietam p
"Where-where is Antietam," he
stammered, as his face began to red
den. "Antietam is in Virginia, Of
course. Where did you think it was
in Wisconsin ?"
"No, sir. knew it was in Mary
land. What the Federal histories call
Antietam is called Sharpsburg by the
Confederates. 1t is a little town on
the Potomac, in Maryland.
"You-you set out to post me on
Antietam !" he shouted, as he stood
off and glared at her, but at the same
time realized that he had been caught
Certainly. Headley ,Greely Losing
and all other writers Of the war locate
Antietam as l have.
"Then they are base liars and de-
ceivers, and ought to be shot When
did you begin to read up on what you
call history"
1--WE been at it for some time,
placidly replied Mrs. BOwser. "They
may have been wrong about Antietam
but how does it happen that the
Eighteenth Ohio is not mentioned a:
one of the Federal regiments partici-
pating?"
Not mentioned" shouted Mr.. Bow
ser, as he swallowed at the lump IL
his throat Eighteenth Ohio is no
mentioned !"
"Not in any history of the battle
and I've looked through about ten
They might have had grudge agains