Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-07-23

SVWVA ny, Wnlcn nau carried
III .MSSA only fifty men into. ac-
ton. besides several
from each of the other companies.
Some of the missing we found dead or
wounded in the creek and woods, with
larger number of the enemy in the
same conditions, but after careful
count we found the Johnnies had Sc
cured about twice as many prisoners
MS 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 farmhouse
known to be about mile down the
road came back with all the farmers
wagons. carts, colored 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
the farmer. who had kindly volun-
teered to help. buried the Confederate
dead near the roadside. Some of the
wounded groaned terribly. and one
RSSA ASAoN tiLhOol DlOhS NY uedIt ny
family screaming "Fatherw every mo-
ment 1 didn't feel any better when
we learned that the wounded boy
whom we were about to cart away
was q son of the old man who was
preparing the dead Confederates for
their last home. Then we knew why
the old man had offered to assist the
burial party and why he had looked so
quickly and intently 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 had
1t not been for his cries.
The next scene was equally painful
the old man begging, with tears in his
eyes, to be allowed to take his wound
cd child to his own house and the ma
5or insisting on his duty to carry all
the wounded captiyes to our own camp.
Several minutes before the old farmer
had been to Us only stay at home reb-
ell. Now there wasn't n man of us who
would not have added our entreaties
to his had we dared. 1t was q great
@AGhCk " uiA VI 10 NilCa Jul Gooio
surgeon, who had been rapidly examin-
ing the wounded, assured the old man
that the boy would need frequent sur
gical attention instead of home nurs-
ing If his life were to be saved, SO he
would be better off in our hospital.
Then the surgeon offered the farmer
his hand, and after a shake the old
man sighed:
''I'll take your word for it."
couldn't understand why mere
handshake was SO convincing until one
Of our middle aged chaps told me that
both men were 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 n
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 n lantern, for it
was now quite dark, and the mother
sobbed 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 he took dinner at
home 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 her father to see the soldiers pass
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 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 our
own comrades died afterward of their
wounds without father, mother. sisters
or brothers to say goodby to them. Not
all the missing were taken prisoners
by the enemy, and nearly half u 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 bullet
and who then was knocked senseless
by CHANGING shot on his head, foated
down the shallow stream some dis
lance before he came to his senses and
got ashore. Stanching his wound by
tying strip Of his shirt tightly around
his leg, he bound the broken limb in
twigs and then spent two whole days
and nights In crawling on his hands
and one knee to our nearest picket sta
ton, several miles distant. In the ear
ly spring colored man who went to
the creek to fish found the remains of
one of our men beside n tree, mile
below the scene of the fight, and
scratched on the bark of the tree were
few words telling how the poor fell
low had died lingering death from
wounds, exposure and starvation.
Yet the entire engagement, in which
full third Of the men on the
bridge were either killed, wounded or
captured within 15 minutes, was in
military parlance "merely little
brush" Mention of 1t never got into
the newspapers. There were thou
sands like it, except for the falling
bridge, during the war, the results be-
ing too small or gradual to be part Of
the history which was being made by
some great engagements which pro-
portionately were not so bloody. Per-
haps the story of this one will explain
to some people why old soldiers when
chatting together about the war talk
much of the march and camp, but very
little about fighting.
The fight at the bridge was the Sc
verest engagement In which our COM
pany had ever participated, SO ought
to have been so absorbed by it us
to be insenslble to anything but my
duty as a soldier. am glad to say
that loaded, aimed and fired as care
fully as if-oh, us If it were the first
day of the "open season., for quail in
the woods and fields near Summerton.