The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-26
the good will of two licenses. paying for one fifteen thousand dollars and Tor the other thirty-fve thousand.
 HENRY TUCKLEY.


 THE DEATH OF GENERAL KEIM.
 pr. Rush leaned back in his easy chair and let the smoke of his cigar en- circle his face.
 Men die curiously," he finally said. Death is much nearer to most men than they imagine The human race IS not so constituted yet that q tremen- dous shock may be easily endured Stoics are well written of in books, but infrequently discovered in life l pre- sume that unintentionally, innocently, l was the cause of the death Of General Kelm of the Second brigade, Casey's division, after the battle of Williams burg, May B. 1862. I was youngster then and chief surgeon under General keim. Like others fresh in the busi- ness of war, I believed that If we gave the confederates one good thrashlng the war would be practically ended l thought that at the outset ninety days would end the conflict Consequently the engagement which Fighting Joe Hooker precipitated at Williamsburg seemed 10 me to be but the beginning of the end changed my mind later
 It WdS NT6utTdI MSNiCiiui p Ni''i' that Hooker, who was in front or Will liamsburg and Fort Magruder, should hold the enemy intrenched there until Union troops could be brought up in their rear. and they be thus surround ed. The movement in a sense was the opening of the Peninsula campaign, and all on our side of the issue were lusty, courageous, very inexperlenceo,
 "On the morning of May 5, 1862, we faced the enemy. The forest in front of us had been felled to obstruet our way; rifle pits were everywhere. Fort Magruder opened fire on our infantry and batteries, and i'll no time what l then thought was the bloodiest thing I had ever witnessed. was on. The Confederates repeatedly charged our center, and although we repulsed them we were weakened each time. We fought all day and far into the night, and gained a success that was not a success.
 Because I was blessed young and so blessed inexperienced, l had spent mos of the day on the firing line, The sur geons were not then accust omed to do- ing this. but I was in a state of blissful ignorance and took in the entire bat tie and performed my duty at the front
 Night came, and with 1t cold, sleeting rain. I supposed the Confed- crates to be resting on their arms in Williamsburg and we laid on ours in the timber cold and unprotected save for rough tents. Between us and the enemy laid the dead and wounded. l awoke early the next morning. l think it was about five o'clock that, stiff and sore, I crawled out of my tent and looked over the ground where the blue and the gray had struggled the pre- ceding day.
 "The soil of Virginia is particularly red in the vicinity of Williamsburg, but it was redder than usual that morning because of the blood which had flowed the day before. The caval- ry. in charging through the moist soil, had cut great hoof-holes, and during the night these had filled with blood and water. Whichever way one turned the eye, there was little to be seen but the ghastly red,
 "As I say, I thought that was to be the only battle of the war--that the conflict was, practically ended, that l never would see battlefield again. I hurried to General Keim's tent and awakened him.
 "'General,' said I, I guess if we ever wish to see a battlefield with the dead still on it we'd better go out and look at this one. We may not get another chance
 The general agreed with me and hastily dressed and came out. We mounted our horses and rode to where the fight had been the hottest. We'll 1t was early morning, neither had break fast, the dead were about us under the Virginia trees, and @ number of wound ed who had spent the night in the storm. We heard groan here and eroan there We saw men dead, but ii <, sb,2a M as tA L. Ai MT EA