The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-03-16
WAR STORIES.
"Thc Joy Of l3attlc.'

charles Scrlbner's Sons, Field Mar
shal Fiscount Wolslcy, recalling his
first engagement with the enemy in
Burma, thus describes "thc joy Of
battle"
81 collected all the Eighticth men
could, aud having warned Taylor Of
the trou cloup into which | had
fallen when heading the previous
stormng party, off we started with a
yell, every one near US cheering ius-
tly.
eve all ran forward at a good pace,
under what seemed to be well sus-
taincd fire from the cncmy's works
! could see considerable number of
them on the top of the parapct or
stockadc, and above all the noise one
heard their defiant shouts of Come
on ! in the Burmese tongue.
What supremely delightful mo-
ment it was! No one in Geld blood
can imagine how intense is the pleas
nre Of such position who has not ex-
perienced it himself; there can Dc
nothing else in the world like il, or
shat can approach its inspiration, it's
intense sense of pride.
"You are for the time being, and it
is always short, lighted up from and
out of all petty thoughts Of self, and
sor the moment your whole existence,
soul and body, seems to rcvcl in true
sense Of glory.
The feeling is catching; it flies
through mob Of soldiers and makes
them. while the fit is on them, abso-
lutely reckless of all consequences.
The blood seems to boil, the brain to
be on fire. Oh! that I could again
hope to experience such sensations!
II have won praise since then, and
commanded in what 10 our little army
We call battles, and know what it is TO
gain the applause of soldiers but, in
long and varied military life,
although, as Captain have led my
own company in charging an enemy, l
have never experienced the same un.
alloyed and elevsting satisfaction or
known again the joy I then felt as
ran for the enemy's stockades at the
head Of q small mob Of soldiers, most
Of them boys like myself"
This, from England greatest Gen
eral is in striking contrast to the ex-
periences of other military leaders
General Grant, for instance. In de-
soribing his preparations for the first
campaign at the beginning Of the
Civil War the General says: "My
sensations as we approached what
supposed might be field of battle
we're anything but agreeable. I had
been in all the engagements in Mexico
that it was possible for one person to
be in, but not in command.
III some one else had been Colonel
and had been Lieutenant Colonel
do not think I would have felt any
trepidstion. Before we were prepared
90 GROSS the Mississippi River at
Quincy my anxiety was relieved, for
she men OF the besieged regiment came
struggling into town. I am inclined
10 think both sides got frightened and
ran away"
Later, when ordered to move against
Colonel Thomas Harris, encamped near
The little town of Florida, Mo-, Gen
eral Grant found himself on the eve
ef actual conflict. He thus writes of
it:
Gas we approached the brow of a
hill from which it was expected we
could see Harris's camp and probably
End his men ready formed to meet US
my heart kept getting higher and
higher, until it felt to me as though it
was in my throat.
II would have given anything then
10 have been back in Illinois, but I
had not the moral courage to halt and
consider what to do. kept right on.
>WheD we reached point from which
= che valley below was in full view I
halted. The place where Harris had
been enoamped few days before was
still there, and the marks of recent
encampment were plainly visible, but
Sshe troops we're gone. My heart re-
sumed its place.
ut occurred to me at once that
Harris had been as much afraid of mo
as l had been Of him. This was
view Of the question I had never be-
fore taken, but it was one that I never
forgot. From that eventto the close
Of the war I never experienced trepida-
zion upon confronting the enemy,
though always felt more or less anx-
iety and never forgot that he had as
z n