The National tribune., 1900-08-23

earthWorkS; Dullt by the army OIL negro
slaves which they had doing nothing else;
but as fast as tney got them done Sher-
mans dashing Yankee boys would get
on their ends and rout them out.
sHERMAN's CARE OF HIS MEN.
The lines at Pine Knot, New Hope
Church and Resaca were very formida-
bic, and lives would have been inhumanly
| thrown away by attempting to take
| them by assault.
! l have always admired Gen. Sherman's s
care of his men; for his faultless March
to the Sea and the manuyering of his
| army to turn his enemy's hanks in the
Atlanta campaign are ranked the best of
| modern times.
battle array; charged their works; but
| failed to make Judgement. For two
| hours we lay under q severe fire and lost
40 men out of 315 muskets taken into the
| fight
Our entire color guard was killed or
wounded; except Serg't Fergus Elliott
| and myself. 1t was a miracle that we
both escaped death; and it makes me now
| while | write this shudder to think of it.
| The spearhead of my flagstaff was shot
away and both of our flags were perfor-
| ated. The last to fall of the guard
shot through the hearD was Henry
| FELTON,, bright young fellow, who was
llktG Dy WIN hHtN ne nIu not
re-enlsted with us and his time was near
| ly out. Poor boy; he was looking for
ward to the time when he would be dis
| charged and go home, and he talked to
us about it often.
Elliott and myself while on the march
alternated in carrying our one knapsack;
| which contained our extra clothing. He
had it strapped to his back in that fight
and when Fulton fell turned to look at
him. A bullet struck the knapsack; went
through frying-pan strapped on the out
side; passed through and lodged in his
| dress-coat; cutting in its passage our un-
! der-garments; stockings; etc. When we
| opened the knapsack we found the bullet
F, lying peacefully in the folds of the sleeves
of the coat, as if it had never been on an
errand of death.
KILLING OF GEN. POLK.
On June 1G we We're ordered 10 the right
to relieve the 33d n. ]. AS we passed in
| the rear of Knap's Pennsylvania Battery
they commenced firing at a group of Off
GERS standing on the rebel works about
half mile away. The first shot fell
short, but the second fell in their midst.
We learned afterward that it killed Gen.
Polk and wounded several of his staff.
| We had hardly taken position before
we were ordered to advance and our line
drove the Confederates back into a sec
ond line of intrenchments, which proved
to be stronger, and with their artillery
they kept us at bay.
| The next morning we found that the
rebs had departed in the night and we
! rapidly followed to Kenesaw Mountain
where we found them strongly intrenched.
Sherman tried to storm them. but was re-
pulsed with loss. We held the right CEN
ter and were on good high ground and
could see our boys drive the rebs on our
right when they attacked them at Griers
farm.
Serg't Levin, of our regiment, was
Killed here while returning from the skir-
mish line. Comrade Elliott and myself
determined to ayenge his death if possi-
Bile, SO we got the loan of guns and am
munition from comrades working on the
breastworks and went out on the skir-
mish line. We located ourselves In an
Old blacksmith shop, on road running
parallel with our works, climbed up on
the cross beams, where there was q lot of
old lumber and rubbish stored, and began
to work loose the shingles. We soon had
two holes through the roof, and looking
saw that we had good view of two or
three rebel rifle pits in our front some 200
yards.
We kept very quiet for some time; and
were rewarded by seeing a Confederate
come out Of the woods in the rear of the
rifle pit line and make his way toward
them. He carried on his shoulder a large
fence-rail. We allowed him to get about
when fred at him and hs suddenly
stopped. Elliott then gave him the con-
tents of his gun and he threw the rail
from his shoulder and walked back the
way he came. We do not know whether
we hit him or not, but know he must
have felt the wind of our bullets at least
i We got great number of good shots