The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1899-01-12
The Veterans Story.

| The Veterans Story.
The veteran in the dingy uniform
that might have been gray or blue was
perhaps shade indefinite as to where
he had experienced the stories he was
telling, but he was an interesting old
fellow. and his listeners ad been read
ing too many war tales sent by special
| messengers to newspapers to worry
about the details so long as the results
were good. So they filled up the mar.
rator's beer mug and sent him going
again.
Zone of the oldest things" he said.
with the calm confidence Of truth,
that l can remember happened to my
brother and me, both of us being mem-
bers Of battery. On one occasion we
had been watching the enemy for a
week, trying to keep him from cross
Ing river until our re-enforcements
had got up. but the rains had set in
and men couldn't move. and we were
pretty sure that the enemy was up to
some dodge or other that was going
to wipe us Off the face of the earth. for
he had ten times as many men and
guns as we had to meet him with. OF
course that made the commanding Off
GERS dead blue. and they offered all
sorts Of inducements for our fellows TO
go over and find out what was up.
suppose dozen or more went. to ten
times that many who volunteered to-
60 but none came back. and we wasn't
any better off than we were before"
''One morning told the General that
my brother and me had a scheme to get
the information he wanted, and if he
would agree to promote US both If we
got it we'd try for it. He mighty near
agreed to make brigadierS of us, but
we compromised on sergeants, and my
brother left for the other side. after
telling me Sood-by. For two days We
did not hear from him, and on the third
the enemy got twelve-pound gun into
a position the battery l was with had
been fighting him away from for a
week, and got a blast from the major,
but never said a word. Neither did
the General; and my poor brother-no-
body knew where he was.
strange to say, our battery didn't
open up on the enemy, either. in his
new position, and the officers began to
look worried, waiting to hear from the
General in command About 10 o'clock
in the morning the enemy's gun let
loose with roar that tore the ground
up, and a shot that looked to me to be
as big as barrel came flying across
the river and hit in a sand pile in the
rear of our battery. In minute had
broke for that sandpile and was
scratching like dog at a rabbit hole.
and pretty soon | came out with the
shell in my arms and was cutting
across lots for the Generals tent.
81 never stopped to ask any ques-
tions of the folks at our battery. but
got to the General as soon as could,
aud rushing right into his tent ! drop
ped that hot shell into bucket of wa
ter and out again. and let into the vent
of it with a hatchet. Well. to make a
long story short, on the inside of the
shell where the blow-up stuff usually
is wasa communication from my broth
err signed Sergeant John Smith. giving
the General the very kind of informa-
tion he was crazy to get'hold of. and it
fixed him so that he knocked the enemy
galley west in no time. My brother
had got into it easy enough. for it
wasn't such a great secret over there
what they was going TO do. The only
trouble was he hadn't been able to get
back with it when our men went over
after it. My brother got into n plan.
though. by loading it into the shell and
firing it from the gun in the position |
he had got for it, when the enemy |
have done it in a month. That |
was the scheme we worked, and my |
brother, being a fine gunner, had no |
trouble getting in with the artillery I
especially when he went to
the officers with story about how he
could get the gun in the position that
they had been trying so long to get and |
owing to our battery on tie
other bank of the river. He was 4 great
strategist. was my brother, and ought
to be directing things in this war.
NO" sighed the veteran. 'he never
got his promotion. though | did mine.
as the General said l. should. My
brother was killed at the battery he
fired the shell from. and by the guns
Of his own friends. Just rs like as not
| done it myself. but that is war
New York Sun.
twelfth Massachusetts at Antietan.
At the reunion of the Survivors of the
twelfth Massachusetts in this city Sec
'etary Kimball made the following
Il am aware that it is Il startling
to make that the loss of the
twelfth Massachusetts at Antietam
vas the highest in the percentage of
my organization. Union or Confeder.
lte, in any one battle of the civil war,