The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-08


Men who have never seen a battle
are generally very DESTROYS Of seeing
one. all the more DESTROYS, perhaps, the
less their prospect is. AS a rule, they
want 70 take part in a battle, if not
tor the aus it represents, for the
sake Of the experience, which they
are apt 70 TO be ~singularly anxious to
share. Very few Of our rising genera
ton nave any personal acquaintance
with war, which may account for the
eagerness of many to participate in the
spanish conflict, before it is too late.
The older and passing generation, who
Wer alive at the outbreak Of the re-
belllon, have or had a realizing sense
Of the horrors of a long and terrible
strife.
When a boy, I fancied, like most
boys. that fighting must be romantic
and attractive. And the fancy was
the more vivid and impressive, per,
maps, because u then en-
Joyed profound peace, without the least
likelihood OF its interruption in an
ordinary lifetime. Some years later
the firing on Sumter brought on the
civil war, at which the north was sur
prised, although it had no reason to
De; impartial observers having regard
ed 1t as inevitable for years. That was
my chance to see something of war,
and as military correspondents We're
IN active demand, I attached myself to
a New York paper in that capacity and
was assigned to the southwest for SER
vice.
For the first ten months. in nv de-
partment, the unionists had very little
success. We were entirely new to war.
We considered skirmishes noted bat
ties, and those who had been in two
or three ranked themselves as veter,
ans. l had been in several campaigns
without any positive results, though l
mad had the satisfaction CT hearing
many guns fired in anger, accompa-
MED by a few casualties. But we were
steadily, though slowly, learning the
martial trade. I had often heard the
whistling Of bullets and the bursting
of shells. but not in very dangerous
proximity. Still, as I was forced to
admit to myself, I had not been fairly,
fully, squarely under fire, and 1 felt
Inundated by the fact, after being with
the army five Or six months. I was
independent, and could go where I
pleased, as I soon learned, having a
rowing. exclusive, unconstrained, free
and-easy command of one. which
pleased me. To be military correspond
ent in the southwestern armies, as they
then were, and to be in the twenties,
too, was not quite devoid of compen-
sation, as things go.
The first time l was fairly under fire
was at Donelson, fought in February,
1852.
E. The siege lasted three days, though
generally reported as but two. During
those three memorable days I was in
trcduced to the music Of musket and
minie-rihe balls n cannon shot; act
ing as amateur sharpshooter, n win
ming a reputation I did not deserve.
and having served as aid for General
Grant, bearing important orders in a
crisis of the battle.
Comparing notes with many a vol
unteer officer afterward as to his early
sensations under fire, I found that
theirs were substantially the same as
lnine. Before any actual experience a
mans notions are usually ggerat-
ed, alarming, chaotic. He is inclined
to think that he will never survive his
first engagement; h a every shot
strikes somebody; that each explosion
Of a u is followed by the death of a
victim. After he has been awhile
among the bullets, whizzing above him,
to the right and left of him, and doing
no apparent damage, much less infict-
ing visible death on all sides, he is
likely to reconsider the question some
what calmly, perhaps to underrate the
peril. He nay remember then the
military declaration that a mans
weight in lead, discharged in the form
Of bullets, is required to kill him. Very
soon the declaration seems monstrously
untrue. He cannot understand what a
vast amount of ammunition is wasted
on every field.
Raw recruits burn powder at a prod
igal rate, and do very little else. To use
up their cartridges quickly is their
proof of valor and efficiency.
They enjoy firing their piece, though
they fire it in the air. The sound and
smoke of the field are to their minds
what mainly constitutes the battle. A
killed anybody, such is the excitement,
confusion and uproar of an engage
ment; but the untried soldier is prone
to imagine he has slain many. Long
after the latter has learned that the
firing of the average musket is COM
monty harmless, he believes that his
own is a dealer of destruction.
It is hard, if not impossible, to tell
Just how men feel in the midst of hos
%tilities, so differently are men consti-
tuted. But, as a rule, the longer they
are engaged the less they feel. Every
added moment reduces their apprehen-
sion, their nervousness. No one can
calculate time on the battlefield. A
minute may seem an hour, and an
hour a minute The excitement is in
tense. A man is keyed up to his high
est, even though unconscious of it. He
lives days and weeks, sometimes. in an
hour. Fighting is the hardest of hard
work; it is e~xhausting. The enlisted
mar is not long actively employed at
any time, because he cannot bear the
strain. After an hour or two, at the
most, he is relieved and fresh troops
arch rought up. The highest officers,
who mainly observe and direct, who