News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1902-07-09

sF4k%~NNA NfISAF HUH lHt uISl COllpC
NCzWAJE ny, which had carried
wv (Wf&A, only fifty men into ac
IL NN'>S9 ton, besides several
from each of the other companies
Some cf the missing we found dead OF
wounded in the creek and woods, with
larger number of the enemy in the
same condition, but after a careful
count we found the JOhnnies had Sc
cured about twice as many prisoners
as We
The proceedings of the next hour or
two would not have interested any CT.
william spectator in search of the glory
Of war. Several mounted men who
had been hurried away to a farmhouse
known to be about Il mile down the
road came back with all the farmers
wagons, carts, cOIored men. spades and
picks. Into the wagons and carts on
a lot of pine tufts hastily picked were
placed the wounded and our own dead
The cOlOred men. under the direction of
she farmer, who had kindly volun.
teered to help, buried the Confederate
dead near the roadside Some of the
wounded groaned terribly, and one
poor fellow almost broke my heart by
family screaming "Father"' every mo-
ment didn't feel any better when
we learned that the wounded boy
whom we were about to cart away
was a son of the Old man who was
preparing the dead COnfpderates for
l0i Ioc ,,y,
the old man had offered to assist the
burial party and why lie had looked so
quickly and inrently through the gath.
ering dusk into the faces Of the dead.
The boy had been brought in later
from the woods, and the father would
never have known of his presence mad
1t not been for his cries.
The next scene was equally painful
the old man begging, with tears in hi,
eyes, to be allowed to take his wound
ed child to his own house and the ma
ior insisting on his duty to carry all
the wounded captives to our own camp
Several minutes before the old farmer
had been to us only stay at home reb-
ell. Now there wasn't a man of us who
would not have added our entreaties
To his had we dared. 1t was a great
relief to all of us when our assistant
surgeon, who lad been rapidly eXamin-
fug the wounded, assured the old man
that the boy would need frequent sur
sical attention instead of home nurs-
Elg if his life were to be saved, so he
would be better off in our hospital.
fhen the surgeon offered the farmer
Eis hand, and after shake the old
man sighed
I'll take your word for it,"
l couldn't understand why a mere
handshake was so convincing until one
of our middle aged chaps told me that
both men We're Freemasons. But the ag-
ony for US was resumed after we start
ed for camp, for the major, though
true to the letter of his duty, was a
Freemason himself so he halted us in
front of the old mans farm long enough
to let the family come out and bid the
boy goodby, perhaps for the last time.
They came down with lantern, for it
was now quite dark. and the mother
sebbed and walled as she leaned over
the cart and did all her thinking aloud
and told how handsome and CHEEKY her
boy had looked when be took dinner at
home a few hours before for the first
time in months. His pretty sister,
whom all of US had adored from time
TO time as she stood at the farm gate
with hpr fotbnr IN coo tho col1iorc ,,o CO
by, prayed aloud for heavens curse to
fall on the man whose bullet had pierre
ed her brothers lungs, and am sure
each Of us trembled at the thought that
the bullet might have been his own
Near them stood a little brother and
sister crying in the pitiful, hopeless
way that my brother Ned did when he
first heard that was going to the war;
Yet this was not the only family that
suffered by that engagement. Besides
the men killed outright, some of ouI
own comrades died afterward of their |
wounds without father, mother sisters
or brothers to say soodby to them. Not |
all the missing were taken prisoners
by the enemy, and nearly half q year
of awful uncertainty and of frantic |
letter writing passed before we learned
this through our captured men who re-
turned when exchanged. One of our
men, whose leg was broken by a bullet
and who then was knocked senseless
BY a glancing shot on his head, floated
down the shallow stream some dis
lance before he came to his senses and
got ashore. Stanching his wound by
tying a strip of his shirt tightly around
dis leg, he bound the broken limb in
tYigs and then spent two whole days
aaad nights in crawling on his hands
and one knee to our nearest picket sta
tion, several miles distant. In the ear
Iy spring a colored maf1Nwho went to
the creek to fish found the remains of
one of our men beside a tree, a mile
below the scene of the fight, and
scratched on the bark of the tree were
a few words telling how the poor fell
low had died lingering death from
wounds, exposure and starvation.
Yet the entire engagement, in which
is full third of the men on the