El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-04

by the enemy's sharpest fire By that
time too, the men were winded, and
they stopped and looked back. We real
ly had no line The charge has been
compared to the fight of migratory
birds. We saw that we had done an
unusual thing. breaking ranks and run
ming forward heller SHELTER.
"When our flag went down, there
was nothing whatever to rally our line
upon. and then the boy adJutant made
the second hit of his career IL the
Twenty fourth. He seized the staff and
waved the flag for moment as a signal
to rally on the center, then darted for
ward to the very crest and into bat
terry. the leader Of the whole line, the
foremost of 60 battlefags then moving
up the slope. As. we neared the summit
we were under the muzzles of the Dig
guns at General Bragg's headquarters,
but the slope was go steep that the
pieces could not be depressed sufficient
ly to harm us. However. the Johnnles
bowled lighted shells down upon our
heads But we held the ridge, and to
Sheridan's division were awarded those
guns as battle trophies. AS for Arthur
Macarthur, there is a record In the war
depa1 tment which says, Medal OF
honor to Arthur Macarthur for GOODNESS
and conspicuous bravery in action in
Selling the colors of his regiment at
critical moment and planting them on
the captured works on the crest of Mis-
sionary Ridge, Tennessee, Nov. %, 1868,
while serving as first lieutenant and
adjutant. Twenty fourth Wisconsin in
fantry.
"Any new deal in field officers which
left Arthur Macarthur out after that
exploit would have bred trouble in the
regiment He was promoted major be-
fore our next hot fight. Kenesaw, and
commanded the regiment that day and
afterward until bullet laid him low on
Nov 80. 1864. Kenesaw turned out a
slaughter pen fer officers, but MacAr-
thur escaped through the aid of pack
age of letters-whether from mother or
sweetheart it's all the same where a
brave fellow is concerned-which he
carried in his breast pocket There IS
tradition among the survivors OF the
Twenty-fourth to the effect that COM
mission as major was also in the pocket
and that the bullet left its black lead
mark right over the name where the
document reads. ITO Arthur MacAr-
thur. greeting. Thanks to the bundle
of letters and the fair hand that penned
them. the missile got no farther, and
we kept our boy leader until we came
to the hottest fight, as we think, of the
series, the battle of Franklin, Tenn.
'Franklin was a decisive battle, and
books have been written to show who
made it so, but only speak Of what the
Twenty fourth did that day under its
gallant young leader. Our brigade had
been rear guard in 10 hour march and
fight from Spring Hill to Franklin, and
soon after noon entered the Enclosure of
breastworks held by the Twenty-third
corps and part of the Fourth to protect
the crossings of Harpeth river, back of
the village of franklin. We were en-
titled to be in reserve and marched back
a few hundred yards from the gap we
had passed through on the Columbia
pike. We made coffee and rested beside
our muskets, expecting respite from
fighting until shutdown at least. Sud
denly about o'clock, the picket firing
in front increased to battle proportions,
and we saw a column of Confederates
rushing over the works in front where
we had come in shortly before Of
course we knew what war meant, es-
pecially with leader like Hood at our
heels, so there was no specializing upon
what to do nor any monkeyshines to
get into military shape for business.
We simply blew the half munched and
half moistened crumbs of hard tack from
our mouths, dropped our coffee tins and
seized our rifles.
81 saw Macarthur swing into his
saddle. draw his sword and start for the
works and that would have been order
enough anyway. But there were diff
culties ahead in the shape of some thou
sands of Pat Cleburne's Tennesseeans.
who had swept our front line away the
length of brigade and were coming
pellmell for the second. Our regiment
was on the right of the third line of
our brigade as we lay at rest, but
know that when Yank and Johnnie
met that day around the Carter house
! we were in the front line. and MacAr-
thur was sabering the men in gray in
! order to cut road to the front. That
| was my last view of him.
"When we came to look for our boy
leader, we found him lying helpless,
wounded. where we first struck the
enemy. and a little farther in toward
the works was acting Major Philbrick,
dead Our division commander, General
! Stanley. said, I will not say that the
, Twenty fourth Wisconsin had all to do
| with saving the day at Franklin. but
| it had large part in it, and in this
feat it was led by its gallant boy colo
mel, Arthur Macarthur.
''Well, they couldn't commission Ar
thur full colonel because we didn't
muster men enough, but they gave him
the hreYet rank with the commission of