Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-02-18


highest battlefield valor has been asso-
ciated with names like Sheridan, Stuart,
Custer, Fitzpatrick, Wilson, the fiery
Cleburne and John B. Gordon, who
were all under the average age for
commissioned officers as it stood in the
last year of the war.
But long before that the gray locks
of fighting warriors had been con-
spicuous on scores of bloody battle.
fields and the bullets of Yankee and
Confederate spared them not. General
Leonidas Polk, the ex-bishop known
as the surpliced warrior of the south,
was killed in the defence of Atlanta at
the age of So; Mansfield, in his Goth
year, fell at Antietam while deploying
his army corps, regiment by regiment,
for a grand charge, and General Wads-
worth was 81 when he leaped his horse
over the Confederate works at the bat.
tie of the Wilderness and fell dead
within the enemy's lines. But the old
est hero Of them all was General Sum-
ner, who led the fighting Second corps
of the Army of the Potomac when he
was 66 years of age. The nickname
given to Sumner on account of his fiery
ardor in battle, "Old Bull OF the
Woods" had reference to his lmpetu-
osity when the hour came to charge.
That Dewey had many gray-halred
compeers in the battle against Spain is
shown by the long list of veterans VINO
made history for the army at Santiago.
First to fall was Colonel Wikof, a SOL
dier who had held q commission in the
regular establishment for more than 81
years. By WikofP's side almost, when
killed, was the second in command OF
the First brigade, Colonel Worth,
with nearly 40 years of service to bis
credit. Worth fell within few feet
of his dead chief. Next in rank came
Lieutenant Colonel Liscum, who at the
moment was climbing the rough hill
side at the head of his Negro regiment.
That young staff. officer, Charles +.
Tayman, mentioned in the official re-
ports as the breathless messenger sent
out by General Kent to summon the
Seventy. first to the front, owed DIS
breathlessness to race after Llscum TO
tell him that the command OF the
brigade devolved upon him. Liscum
was So and hadn't much the start OF
Tayman at the bank of the river; but
the youngster nearly gave out before
he could deliver the message. Almost
instantly the old man disappeared in
the tall grass, wounded; but gray
hairs were still in evidence on that
part of the field. Major Ellis and
Major Auman of the Thirteenth, charg-
ing abreast of Liscum's colored troops,
were war veterans hard crowding three
score. They went down before San
Juan blockhouse was reached. Then
Colonel Ewers, of the Ninth, gray
beard who had fought in that regiment
under Grant as far back as 1862, took
com mand of the victorious line.
Meanwhile, just TO the right OF WIKI
off s brigade, Hawkins, a soldier
who began his career in 1852, was
leading on the Sixth and Sixteenth,
under Egbert and Theaker, gray
boards who were to- fall outside the
breastworks. Hawkins crossed the
trenches and was shot the next day
while repelling the Spanish counter
assault. Next to Hawkins, Wheeler
was the oldest man on the firing line,
and how valiantly he battled until the
victory was won has been told.
1t should be noted that with one
exception every regiment, battalion
and squadron of the regulars engaged
at San Juan went into action led by a
veteran of 1861, and the ten generals
and field officers who were victims OF
Spanish bullets in that battle were close
to 60, while some, notably Hawkins
bad passed the threescore mark by a
couple of years.