Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-11-04

and so in the end he Joined Eds COM
pany in time to be made second lieuten-
ant. Before their first battle Lieutenant
Bissell had been transferred into the
artillery and Lieutenant Peck was pro-
NOTED next in rank to the captain.
So the regiment came up to Cedar
mountain along the dusty roads and
across the fields of backberries, under
the hot sun. All day it lay in reserve,
and the men listened to the grind, grind,
grind of the musketry at the foot of the
mountain. When night came, they heard
the first shells howl over their heads
and saw the burning fuses like shooting
stars blazing across the sky and the
guns of the infantry sparkling like fire
flies in the fields. Then when the regi-
ment was ordered to charge Lieutenant
Peck knew for the first time that he
lacked the nerve to carry him up the
hill into the smoke of the battery,
which Numbered and blazed and lighted
the cornstalks with every discharge.
He thought of the people at Round Hill
and he thought of his duty, and the
disgrace of stopping behind seemed
more dreadful than death in the corn
field, and all the time he knew his cow
ardly legs would refuse to do their
work. He knew that they were getting
ready to serve him scurvy trick in the
midst of the charge. He felt cold chills
in his hair and q cold sweat on his
body, but he was determined to do his
duty.
In his misery he called the captain
and begged him to detail two sergeants
to carry him in, if necessary, and the
sergeants rushed him along so fast in
the glare and roar and excitement that
he was the first officer to arrive in the
battery, blinded and unconscious from
loss of blood, and actually received the
Confederate captains sword in his
nerveless hand. 1t was believed by all
but three men in the regiment that Lieu
tenant Peck had been wounded at the
start, and he left for home the next day
in blaze of glory, hero and major
by brevet
After the departure of the major Cap
tain Ross resigned his commission in
the infantry to join the cavalry. The
dash and excitement of the mounted
service were more in his way. He had no
taste for plodding along on foot and GO
ing into battle behind a line of muskets.
He rose rapidly in rank. In less than a
year he was lieutenant colonel and at
the battle Of Charlottesville he was in
command of his regiment, which moved
out in columns Of tours on the plank
road until it was ordered to halt. The
thick woods closed in on the right and
left and the smoke of the skirmishers
drifted out Of the thicket and lay like a
thin blue tCS across the open fields in
front. The bullets from the enemy be-
yond Kissed overhead, and now and then
brought down man or horse. The
lieutenant colonel in command was
eager and inpatient, but he sat still in
the hot sun, waiting orders. Stragglers
and wounded men came drifting back in
twos and threes on the road. The bull.
lets came thicker and hotter through the
leaves of the trees. Then the infantry
came in crowds falling back through the
thlcket. He could hear the yell of the
enemy in front. He could stand the
strain no longer. He turned sharply in
his saddle and ordered the bugles to
blow Forward !"
Down the road went the regiment at
trot the canteens and carbines rat.
Ting and Jingling above the clatter of
the horses hoofs on the planks, and the
lieutenant colonel rode ut the head of
the column. Nobody heard the kissing
bullets. When they were in the open
past the thanking woods, the regiment
deployed into line at the command of
the bugles, galloping to right and left.
A moment they halted to dress on the