St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-03-15
ON DUTY UNDER FIRE.

Glory awaits the dashing aid-de-camp
who performs signal act OF daring on
a great battlefield, but in the course OF
long war thousands OF gallant young
fellows ride through fire and blood with
no reward but hardship and danger,
brief mention in the reports and possibly
a brevet.
In battle the aid carries orders under
fire and often guides or leads the col
umn on a charge Washington was an
aid when he saved Braddock's army
from destruction at Monongahela. Mel
son A. Miles won his first promotion as
An aid to General Howard, and Custer
first gained distinction on the staff OF
Mcclellan. A Spanish revolver IN the
hands of a wounded don, who lay welt
ering in his blood near San Juan block
house, made a staff hero out of Lieu
tenant Garesche Ord of the Sixth regu-
lars. Young Ord was the son OF Gen
eral E. o. G. Ord, well known army
leader who died of fever in Havana
some years ago. The generals name
sake, Lieutenant E. o. G. Ord of the
Twenty second infantry, served IN
Cuba also.
Garesche Ord was on the staff OF
General Hawkins He was conspicuous
all the morning in the bloody San Juan
basin, where he risked his life more
than once to get information about the
Spanish positions and the ways to get
at them. When the Sixth and Sixteenth
regiments reached the fording place
following, not leading, the general and
his stafford was just coming from
the front, where he had climbed tall
tree for a good look at the blockhouse.
"Boys, you can take it in 30 minutes,
he said. 1t was three hours or such a
matter before these troops crossed the
Spanish trenches, and when they did
Ord was one of the foremost.
There was another staff officer con-
spicuous at the ford, and before noting
what happened to Ord it is well to have
a glance at General Skaters imam for
the hour" Lieutenant j. d. Miley.
When these same troops of Hawkins
began to cross the creek, the Spanlards
were pouring in Mausers at a very
lively rate, and Miley stood on the bank
nearest the Spanish lines. He is tall,
slim fellow Of about 80, sober, earn
est schoolmasterish sort of a soldier who
wouldn't laugh without the best of
causes. He stood in view of the line in
direct range of the bullets, swinging
his hands and clapping them gleefully
while he kept up fire of comment to
encourage the men. "That's all right"
(Meaning the bullets overhead "The
Spanish are simply wasting their am
munition, that is all. :" Soon it got too
hot for him even, and he strobe away
under the bank, saying with a smile,
"I'd better be getting out of it, though. "
There was more work for Miley to do
that day as Skaters representative,
and he is to be met with all along the
line in the narratives of the soldiers.
There is story afoat in the army
chat Ord said to comrade that morn
ing, "I'll come out of this a colonel or
o corpse" but his companion officers
deny this and say it is unlike Ord. He
was capable of rashness under excite
Ynent, but not given to bravado. The
story of Ord's gallantry and death was
given me by his companion officers of
She Sixth. After the brigade had
been under fire a couple of hours OF
more, it reached the shelter Of a
"bench" in the hillside well toward the
crest. Some confusion in the lines took
place owing to the thick high grass,
the barbed wire fences and other OBJ
structions and Ord, seeing detached
band of men little ahead of the resi-
making ready for the final rush, asked
Hawkins permission to join it, Haw
kins assented under the spur of TIT
+ prevailing excitement, but said after
ward that he had it on his lips to re
S call the words. However, he did not
!. and Ord kept on at the head of all
r When the handful reached the trench
Ord saw a wounded Spaniard, and witt
t gestures told his men to take. good car
{, of the luckless foeman. Evidently tn
u Spaniard misunderstood the gesture
8 and the words were also unintelligibl
to him. He drew revolver and sho
u Ord dead. Ord's companions shot tn
" Spaniard, natural act of revenge un
der the circumstances.
{ Lieutenant Miley received praise out
.. side of the report of his immediate con
a mander, General Shafter, fact whic
makes the mention all the more en-
is phatic. General Kent, who led the il
\, fantry at San Juan hill, says that b
. often saw Miley delivering orders undo
r fire with great unconcern. Miley wt
y the bearer of truce dispatches and al
companied Shafter when he talked wit
rs the Spanish generals. He it was wi
p received the honor of hoisting IL
American flag over the governors pa
IT. ace ON July H. and found rival at tt
#, last moment in the shape of meddl
some newspaper correspondent, wi
es tried to rob the army of honor won
m, the cannon's mouth.
ne Miley was one of the three Americ,
commissioners who negotiated the su
render of Santiago, the others bell
of General Wheeler and General Lawto
he There is an army story told to illr
Is. ,trate the remarkable influence at hea
As quarters Of this comparatively you
H. aid-de-camp. When the Spaniards ST
a rendered there was Spanish gunbc
w. In the harbor, which the enemy p