The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1904-06-02
THE BATTLE.FIELDS
OLD SOLDIERS TALK OVER
ARMY EXPERIENCES.
The Blue and the Gray Review Incl.
dents of the Late War, and In q
Graphic and Interesting Manner
Tell Of Camp, March and Battle.

Tell Of Camp, March and Battle.
Covering n retreat" said the Cap
tain, SIS the hardest work soldiers are
called upon to perform. The safety
Of an army often depends on the mas
| terfulness of the officer in command OF
a rear guard and on the staying quail
ties of his men. 1t was the fate of oul
regiment. the Fifty-second Ohio, to act
as rear guard on retreat when it was
only few weeks old, and on that
march the men learned q good many
| things not in the books.
THE regiment was mustered into
the service Aug. %, 1862, and Aug. &c
was marching from Lexington, KY, to-
ward the Kentucky river to re-enforce
General William Nelson in battle al
Richmond. The summer had been un-
usually dry, the pike was ankle deep
in dust, and there was little water to
be found. The march was hard one,
and our green regiment had the adj
vance. During that day and the next
We We're continually meeting stragglers
from the battlefield, big with tales of
privation and disaster. Each strag-
gler was the sole survivor Of his COM
mand, which had been literally an
initiated in bloody battle.
"This was very trying on the nerves
Of new men. We could hear the ar
tillery firing before we left Lexington,
and we could hear it better as we ad-
vanced. At night we were meeting
every few minutes struggling squads
from the front. who spent all their
spare time firing at each other. As
the stragglers came in the regiment
would halt few minutes to hear the
latest news from the front and new
description of the battle. At one Of
these parleys the men, exhausted and
nerve shaken. dropped down to get a
minutes rest. For several hours
stragglers had been telling us that
Scott's and Morgan's cavalry was just
ahead Of us or in our rear.
Therefore, as we rested we were
apprehensive, expecting Morgan's cav
airy to ride us down. Imagine the ex-
citement, then, when, during one Of
these roadside halts We heard a COM
motion in the Ninety eighth Ohio to
OAR rear. We were in the woods at the
time and could hear horses galloping
on the fiinty pike and chains rattling
on the road. Somebody in the rear
shouted 'Morgan's cavalryv Every
other man took up the cry and, half
awake, the men, many Of them gunless
and hatless, jumped to either side Of
the road. high fence preventing fur
ther retreat.
Crowded into fence corners the men
waited for the worst, and it came in
the shape of mules with doubletree
chains and singletrees flying. The
mules, scared worse than any man in
the ranks. ran from the rear almost
the full length of the regiment before
they were caught. Then the men
swept back into the road, and never
met one of them who would admit that
he had broken ranks or had lost
gun. As for myself, l recovered my
lost gun, and never made remark to
indicate it had ever been out of my
hands.
80 Swan, however, lost his gun and
cap. Something had to be done. and
10 rose to the occasion with charac-
teristic resourcefulness. At the next
halt he found Private Chubb of COM
pany K asleep, and gently relieved him
of his gun and cap. He removed the
letter K from the cap, plastering the
spot where the letter had been with
dust made mud The next day as we
were in full retreat to Lexington, act
ing as rear guard under Colonel Dan
McCook, and the hot sun was beating
down on us numerically, Chubb came
up bareheaded. cursing everybody in
general, and the man who stole his
cap and gun in particular. 10 Swan
was a man to tell your troubles to- and
Chubb found in 10 sympathizing lis
tener.
The mention of 10 Swan said
Sergeant Sam Grimshaw, reminds me
that on the day of that mule stampede
most Of us were so frightened that
from that tune We began to turn gray.
When those mules broke loose. with
the spreaders and the Lord only knows
how many other chains, we thought
for minute that the whole rebel
army, cavalry, infantry and artillery
had been turned loose on us.
"Our only casualty was injury to
George Malone, upon whose breast
one Of the frightened mules stepped,
Inflicting a wound more painful and
serious than If he had been struck by
a bullet. Malone was discharged at
Nashville, Tenn, and draws a pension
But 1 want to say that our company
lB, Fifty-second Ohio stands in a class
by itself, in that it had not a single
case Of desertion in its three years
service. From start to finish we had
l2O men in the company, and if the
published by the state of Ohio
are correct, our company Is the only
,ne from the state that did not report
case of desertion.
I'VE lost good many men, however
IN what the boys called side issues.
For example, while our brigade was on
outpost duty at Lee and Gordon's
Mills in March. 1864. Humphreyville,
Roe. Bond and myself
we're given permission to explore the
battlefield. We had
gone over good part of the field east
If Rossville and Lee and Gordon's
Mills and had found several percns-
sion shells, unexploded. With a
ratchet we had unscrewed the brass
rom the points Of the shells for max
ng finger rings, which were in great
lemand as souvenirs of the battle.
I'VE then went over TO the west side
# the road and struck nothing in the
she'll line for a mile or more. Then
We came upon an old cavalry camp,
With three acres of ground inclosed
,y a brush fence. While there Bond
picked up fuse shell and, placing it
IN stump. began to cut in the head