Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-10-12
Playing 'Possum at Kenesaw.

'have been told, but none of them to
my mind came up to the story of Capt.
Joe Majors experience at Kenesaw.
Major at that time was first lieutenant
of company A, Eighty-sixth Illinois,
and he was well to the front in the
charge, when something hit him and
down he went. When he rega.ned con-
sciousness he found himself fiat on his
back, among the dead and wounded
just outside the rebel breastworks, and
about seventy-fve feet in front of our
own line, where his comrades were
hugging the ground and making the
best fight they could against the strong
ly posted Confederates, who had sue
cessfully resisted the charge.
Lieut.. Major, as his wits came back,
realized that he was in ticklish posi-
ton, to say nothing of being between
two fires If he showed signs Of life
the rebels would force him to crawl
over their breastworks as a prisoner,
and as retreat was out of the question
he decided to pretend he was a dead
man, in a heap with other dead men.
This seemed easy enough until an en-
terprising Johnny crawled out over the
works and proceeded to investigate He
relieved Major of his revolver, sword,
hayersack, pocketbook, and hat. No
ticing that Major was breathing the
Johnny, in the kindness of his heart,
tried to force a little water into the
Yank's mouth. Major was very thirsty,
but he refused to swallow, and the
rebel, believing the Yankee was past
all help, crawled away, carrying his
booty into the rebel lines.
'"This was about 10 o'clock in the
forenoon of that terribly hot day, June
q, 1864. All day Major lay there on
his back, with the sun in his face, not
daring to move hand or foot or shift his
body. Both sides kept up rapid rife
fire, the smoke from the rebel guns
putting out almost into Majors face.
When darkness came Major got on his
feet and made a dash for the Union
lines, not more than thirty pa ces away.
The course was down hill, and he came
over our breastworks like a man fred
out of cannon, the rebels giving him
a special volley. His last jump in that
fearful race took him over our men,
guns and bayonets, and he came down
within six feet of where stood. There
was instant uproar of joyful exclama-
tons and cheers, and Major received
the most enthusiastic reception of his
life.
I'm relating his experience of the
robbery he was insisting that the rebel
had taken his watch, when his hand
struck his watch pocket, and he found
his watch was still there. The Johnny
had taken locket from the pocket, but
had left the watch. But the lieutenant's
sword and revolver were gone, the for
mer to come back to him thirty-six
years after it's capture. In 1900 Gov.
Tanner received a letter from James
A. Jones, of Monroe County, Alabama,
saying that the writer had in his pos
session an old sword, indistinctly mark
ed TO Major, Eureka, Illinois, Eighty
sixth Illinois Volunteers which he
would be glad to restore to the proper
owner
1.-THE letter was referred to Capt Ma
jor of Eureka, ILL.,, who wrote to Mr.,
Jones, and in due time received his
sword lost at Kenesaw. 1t appeared
from the letter that the sword had been
captured by John Williams, who, after
the war, returned to Butler County,
Alabama, with the grandfather of the
man who returned the sword Soon
after the close of the war the sword
was borrowed by the Jones children, to
be used in play at school exhibition,
and was never returned. Later the
Jones family removed to Monroe Coun-
ty, leaving the sword at the old home
stead in Butler County, where it was
found in 1900 in a crack between two
logs of an old stable. The finder dis
covered the inscription, and wrote to
Gov. Tanner.
Lessons Unheeded by the Confederacy.
A lesson might have been learned
from the War of the Revolution; for
in that war the capital Of the country
was changed no fewer than nine times,
and the British armies marched from
one end of thu tn ! colonies to the
other; yet America Was not conquered;
or from that greatest defensive war Of
ancient or modern times, wherein Fred
erick II. of Prussia maintained the in
dependence of his country against COM
bined continental Europe. With the
Austrian armies in his front, the
French on his TANKS, and the Russians
and the Swedes pillaging his capital in
his rear, not a battalion of his army
would he risk merely to hold territory.
For six of these seven bloody years
he did not even see his capital. LET the
frontiers and capitals take care Of
themselves. The heart of Prussia is her
armyv' And so, attacking and retreat
ing, marching and concentrating,
delivering terrible blows whenever he
could strike to advantage, always keep
ing his men together and preventing his
enemies from concentrating, until the
fortune of war changed and the last foe