The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1899-03-16

Walter Armitage and David Bronson
Chicago newspaper compoSltors; Patrlcl
O'Neil, an eK-Sergcant oil Eegu! arS, gwen
apt remarks and brave deeds; Kari Brent
man, a lovable German youth, all enlis
after the Fall of Fort Sumter. One Stock
q phlegmatic young man, who. despit'
his stupid appearance, Is Gulck-wltte(
and an excellent markSnlan, is in thu
regiment, and becomes one OF the group o
friends. A set OF toughS ere "peory
among them, also enlist and prove COW
ards from the first. "lnky, IN office
boy, becomes an artiIleryman whose
dashing work secures him speedy pro
motion. Dick Morgan, a compassion, wht
enters the rebel army, is met by the
comrades at various times. the File
soon get promotion, O'Neil becoming q
Lieutenant. Kari falls madiy in love with
a bewitching, fiery, contrary rebel girl
They are with the army operating against
Vicksburg, and have many adventures.
O'Neil is captured and escapes with Stock
who fell at ChickaSaw Bayou and was left
for dead. The assault on Nicksburg is
repulsed, and the Union army falls back
after sustaining heavy losses. O'Nei
loses an arm in attempting to save the
colors. He receives his commission as
Lieutenant, and is recommended as Cap
tain for Go. A by the Colonel.
To the eager men on the line OF invest
ment the siege advanced with most weari-
some slowness. They had not learned
the patience that might have been ex-
pected from their long tarrying in the
swamps. This rather seemed to render
them the more feyerishly anxious to bring
the campaign to close and attain at
once to the goa! Of their long cherished
hopes. '~
They had driven the men before them
backward for 500 miles, and through four
States. Two years befoIe this nowbe
leaguered horde was insolently threaten
ing them at Cairo, and its leaders were
arrogantly talking of capturing that post
at the confluence of the OHIO and Mis-
sissippi, and of debating a humiiating
peace in the streets of Chicago. Since
then the Union forces had gone ever
forward, and the rebels ever backward
back, through Missouri, back through
Kentucky, back through Tennessee; still
farther back through Mississippi and Ar
Kansas, until now they were brought to
bay, with less than 200 yards of ground
between them and utter overthrow.
Is IL any wonder that the Army of the
Tennessee, having wrested a whole en-
pire OF territory-an area equal 10 that OF
any OF the principal European mon
archies-from its insulting enemy, should
chafe angrily at its retention OF the slen-
der strip il still chung to?
But there seemed no help for il. The
disastrous experience of the 22d OF May
showed there was no alternative 10 a
regular siege save the terrible slaughter
that would result from StorIning the
place. Even that slaughter might prove
unavaiIing, because such were the Pc
culiaritieS of the position that only a
limited number of men could force their
way across the marrow space in the rebel
front, and in doing so they must contend
against the ascent of rugged ard precip-
itous nights, rendered infinitely more diff
cult by every device that human in
genuity could suggest, and swept by the
fire of the entire garrison of $4,000 men
standing I'm position and shooting their
asSailants down at leisure
SO now the sap must take the place OF
the swift march or the wild rush OF the
charge, and days progress must be
measured by inches, instead OF miles
Thus the siege went on. Each night
the heads n, s.r; zig gag bitches, leading
toward p.o rfsl works were dug a few
inches rssaItr tho batteries that frowned