The National tribune., 1898-01-06
AND ST.

AND 81.
slowly recalling the circumstance. "The
two Lieutenants and the Orderly had the
upper berth, and we slept on the ground
floor"
Yes, " assented ST; and someone's come
along hitched mules TO our bedroom and
snaked it off"
Just the way in the condemned army
grumbled Shorty, his ill-humor asserting it
self as he sat up and looked out over the
rain-soaked fields. Never kin git hold of
good thing but somebody yanks it away
Spose they thought that it was too good for a
private soldiers, and they took it away for
Come Major General to sleep under'
Well, | wonder what we're goin' to do
for grub? said 81, as his athletic appetite be-
gan to assert itself. "Our own wagons. that
we had such time guarding are over there
in the cedars, and the rebels are filling them
selves mp with that stuff that we were so
good to bring up for them.n
1t makes me jest sizzle," said Shorty,
8 to think Of all we went through to git them
condemned wagons up where they'd be
handiest for them"
81 walked down the line toward where the
Regimental Headquarters were established
under persimmon tree, and presently came
back, saying:
They say there's mighty small chance of
gettin' any grub to-day. Wheeler burnt
three or four miles of our wagons yesterday,
and's got possession of the road TO Nashville
We've got to fight the battle out on empty
stomachs, and drive these whelps away before
we can get q square mealn
Jan. ] 1863, was an exceedingly solemn,
unhappy New Years Day for the Union sol
dierS on the banks Of Stone River. OF the
Al 900 who had gone into the line Oh the
evening of Dec. 80, nearly 5000 had been
killed or wounded, aud about 3 600 were
prisoners. The whole right wing of the army
had been driven back several miles, to the
Nashville Pike. Cannon, wagon-trans, tents
and supplies had been captured by the enemy,
the road to Nashville was in the hands of the
rebel cavalry, which had burned miles of
wagons, and the faint-hearted ones murmured
that the army would have to surrender or
starve.
There was not ammunition enough to fight
another battle. The rebel army had suffered
as heavily in killed and wounded, but it was
standing on its own ground, near its own
supplies, and had in addition captured great
quantities of ours.
The mutual slaughter of the two armies
had been inconceivably awful
CHASTITY, shuddering sickening. They had
pounded one another to absolute exhaustion,
and ell that sullen, lowering, sly-weeping
Winters day they lay and glared at one an
other like two huge lions which had fanged
and torn each other until their strength had
been entirely expended, and breath and
strength were gone Each was too spent to
strike another blow, but each too sayagely
resolnte TO think of retreating.
All the logged stubb0rnness of his race
was now at fever point in Sis veins. Those
old pioneers and farmers of the Wabash from
whom he sprang were not particularly hand
some to look at, they were not glib takers,
nor we'll educated. But they had q way of
out-rather slowly and awkar,lly it
might be-just what they ought to do. and
then doing il or dying in the effort-which
made it very disastrous for whoever stood in
their way Those who knew them best much
preferred to be along with them rather than
against them when they set their square
cornered heads upon accomplishing some
object.
81 might be wet, hungry, and the morass of
mud in which the army was wallowing uncon-
Portable and discouraging to the last degree
but there was not the slightest thought in
his mind OF giving up the fight as long as
there was rebel in sight. He and Shorty
were not hurt yet. and until they were, the
army was still in good fighting trim.
The line of the booth Ind was mournfully
shorter than it was two days before, but there
were still several hundred boys of Sis stamp
gathered resolutely around its flag, the game
little Col0nels voice rang out as sharply as
ever, and the way the boys picked up their
guns and got into line whenever a sputter of
firing broke out anywhere must have been
very discouraging to Gen. Bragg and his Off
GERS, who were anxiously watching the Union
lines through their glasses for signs Of de- |
and retreat.
We licked 'em yesterday, every time
they come up squarely in font O. the 280th |
Ind, 81 said to Shorty and those who stood |
around gazing anxiously on the masses of |
brown men on the other side of the field |
g We can do it again, every time. The only |
way they got away with us was by sneakin'
around through the cedafs and tallin us in
the rear We're out in the open ground, |
. they cau't get around our tanks"
And hS looked to sme eKtreme right, where |