Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1899-08-24

appointed lieutenant In the regular
army and took a course fighting In
dians on the plains. Another incident
at San Juan fort illustrates the lower
Of individual courage at the right
time. A soldier In the Roosevelt hos
pital, New York. George J. HanlOn Of
the Seventy first. describing his ex-
periences in the charge. said:
My company got mixed up, and pushed on
with the Thirteenth regulars When we reached
the top, some Of us took shelter In the block
house and began firing from there at the opposite
hills. There wasn't one OF the enemy In night,
only dead ones, so we blaxed away at nothing st
all for awhile. But they had " dead In range,
and it was dream the way their bullets played
around US.
One of the bravest things I saw in the wa,
happened right there. An officer came up-he
was a major OF the regulars but don't know
what regiment-and he saw that We didn't know
what 10 aim ct and were getting little rat
tied. So what did he do but quietly walk out in
kont where the Mausers were coming thSckest
and proceed to study the hills with his heldglaas
as unconcerned as you please. And every now
and then he would call out 10 US who were In
side, Men. Ak your range at 800 yards and sweep
the grass of tie ridge Of that HILL" or again:
Men, i see OVet tncfu iyooo
yard range and see II you can't got some Of them.
Fire low." never saw such nerve as that ofa-
Ger had. He'd have stirred courage In anybody.
Hanlon told two stories Of ugly
wounds sustained by his comrades In
the blockhouse from bullets fred
through the small window, and the
question was a natural one as to the
fate Of the brave major outside. The
second comrade wounded was boy
Of 20, In the Thirteenth, and HGnlon
went out to call Red Gross man to
attend him. He found one bending
over a PROSTATE form ON the ground.
1t proved to be that of the major. He
was shot through the hearA
OF unknown heroes there were not q
few at Santiago. Hanlon says that the
men around him had too much to DO
looking after the Spnnlards to pay at
tention to the dead major, and>after a
time the burial squad took him away.
Some one doubtless recognized him
and identified him and placed mark
at his grave, but of those who witness
ed his heroism none could carry the
credit of the deed to where II belonged.
In the first brilliant account of the
battle cs El Caney by Captain Lee of
the English army there was reference
| 10 a deed of heroism called by the au-
| thor one Of the most daring Of the
campaign. Other writer's have refer
red to it, but the name Of the hero
has never been revealed. This was
the cutting Of the barbed wire fence In
front of the Twelfth infantry on its
advance to the stone fort. The line Of
the Twelfth was long and the advance
necessarily slow on account Of the
stubborn defense OF the Span.ards aud
the delay caused By getting in range Of
the American guns firing from the rear
| over the infantry lines.
| Finally charge was ordered across
open fields inclosed by wire fence. A
check at that point might be fatal to
| the assailants, and volunteers were
called for TO cut openings through the
wire. Two men responded. They
crawled forward under cover, but at
the time Of cutting the wires were ex-
posed to Spanish fire. Neither was
hit. The commanding officer of the
regiment at Montauk said that officer
who handled this work that day was
away from the regiment, and no one
In camp could give their names He
personally saw from a distance the
men at work and considered IL a brave
deed, but was too much absorbed In
the charge to inquire who they were.
When the regiment retired to its post
at jefferson Barracks, Mo-, safe from
the glare of publicity and lionizing, the
identity of the men was made known
by their commander, Captain Haskell
Of Company III. One OF them, Cor
poral James L. Mcmillan, told his sto-
ry, dwelling particularly upon the
bravery OF his comrade, Private ]. w.
Smith. Mcmillan piloted Company III.
through the gaps his pliers had made
in the wire fence.
Captain Tuther1y, commanding q
squadron Of the First cavalry. told me
Of very modest hero Of his own COIN
pany. THIS was Sergeant Karsten.
Karsten was wounded In the charge
by a ball in the shoulder. Feeling some
strange sensation, he tore off his shirt,
examined the hurt and said it wasn't
enough to send him to the rear. Con-
tinuing in the line, he was soon over
come by a numbness Of the arm, which
prevented him handling his krag. In
stead Of going to the surgeon, he used
his sound hand I'm caring for the
wounded on the field. Karsten was
too old to be commissioned from the
ranks and received no reward for his
pluck. In fact, 1t is the temper Of the
regular not to seek reward for simply
doing soldiers sworn duty
Soldiers of the noncombatant class
come In for many very hard scorings,
but when one Of these gentry gets q
chance to face the music he does II Ike
hero. The assistant surgeon Of the
rwenty-flrst infantry. Captain n. @.