Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-10-28
HOLDING THE BRDG E.
BY CHARLES B. LEWIS.

~
8 ssone wall, a creek meanderins
through the fields and across highway
to empty its waters into a river two or
three miles away-all these are points
which may bring victory or defeat when
5000 men grapple in struggle. The
guns rush for the hills and knobs when
they go into action; the cavalry must
have clear sweep of the fields if they
are to break lines of infantry; the
marching battle lines are broken and
thrown into confusion by ditch across
which farmers boy could spring with
ease.
A mile and a half above our right
wing is a simple wooden bridge SPAN
ming the creek to connect the highway.
Above and below the bridge are steep
banks, overgrown with bushes. A
farmer or hunter would plunge down
ward through the bushes, bound over
the 'babbling waters without effort and
he at the top of the other bank in a
moment. Not so with the battle line.
1t halts, wavers and marches by the
right or left flank to find another cross
ang above or below. The guns change
position at dead run; the infantry
move slowly and grudgingly and waste
precious time. A battle is won or lost
because a single brigade loses quar-
ter of an hour in reaching the position
Resigned to it. A division is turned
aside by wall, a regiment by rail
fence. These are the oraers to the
captain of Company F:
"You will march your company to
-xhe bridge and take up such position
as you think best to prevent the army
from crossing. If attacked by hun
bdred men, hold it; If attacked by a
sthousand, do not fall back. If the en-
Aemy forces the bridge he will take our
right wing and flank, you understand. "
81 understand" replies the captain,
II am to hold the bridge to the last"
ITO the last"
Company F marched away by the
right face and was soon lost to sight
dn the woods. In an hour it was throw
ing up earthwork at the north end of
the bridge. 1t was a simple ridge of
earth, extending east and west across
the highway and into the fields for a
distance of one hundred feet, with it's
center thicker and stronger than it's
wings. when that was finished the
men pulled down small trees and up
rooted bushes, clogging the highway to
the south of the bridge, and heaped OBJ
structions on the bridge itself. For
two hours they worked like farmers,
each man Strengthening up now and
then to f1irt the sweat from his tenn
piles, and they then took up their mus
kets and were ready.
Did you ever try to imagine the
sounds created by a great body of
troops "a division or corps-moving
forward to battle? You hear a far
away neighing of horses, a rumbling
OF wheels, the blowing of bugles and
the rattle of drums. All the various
sounds go to make up one general,
awesome sound, as IL you could see
through the forests and over the hills
and know that great tidal wave was
sweeping toward you from the shores
of the sea. The sounds come nearer
and nearer, and you seem to feel the
tramp of the thousands of feet. You
hear a mighty muttering, as If of men
scolding at each other. Your ear
catches fragments which speak of
menace and peril and make you look
behind TO see il the road is clear for
flight. 1t is the march of the specter
OF DEATH and its feshless bones rattle
as it tramps forward over the high
ways to another feast of blood.
There they come! steady now!"
The enemy should have sent a force
forward to seize the bridge three hours
ago, but of the hundred details of
FRIGHTENING THE