The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-01-05
SOLDIERS AT HOME.
THEY TELL SOME INTERESTING
ANECDOTES OF THE WAR.
How the Boys Of Both Armies Whiled
Away Life In Camp-Foraging Kx-
periences, Tiresome Marches-ThriI.
ling Scenes ON the Battlefield.

"An old diary. said a One Hundred
and Twenty-fifth Illinois man, "re-
minded me of that mysterious man on
horseback at Kenesaw. This is what
I recorded in my diary June 10, 1864:
Again ordered forward, but the John
MES have gone to higher ground. We
follow them up, and at night we are
at the foot Of a mountain, up the sides
Of which are skirmish pits, and nea
the top seems to be breastworks, with
here and there embrasures for batter
les. We soon know that the batteries
are in place all right, and nineteen of
our cannon open to reply to the rebS
or the top Of the mountain. At the
same time a furious thunder cloud
comes up and joins in the hu~rly-burly,
and such a roaring, shaking, and quak-
ing as ensued is seldom witnessed
That reads like it was written at the
front, under the conditions stated by
a soldier present and a participant
He was at the foot of Kenesaw, in
Georgia, and belonged to Colonel Dan
McCook's brigade, all right, but when
he made his record he did not know
the name of the location.
History later made the name men,
orable; incidents Of a few days later
fixed themselves on my memory, espe-
cially the charge Of June q, 1884, on
the dead angle Of Kenesaw, by Colonel
McCook's brigade. 1 belonged to COM
pany X, One Hundred and Twenty
fifth Illinois. Our Colonel, Oscar i.
Harmon, of Danville, ILL.,, was killed
after Colonel McCook fell while COM
handing and leading the brigade in
the second effort to rush the works.
He was within the twenty-foot line
Of the enemy's works. My place was
on the extreme left, and after we had
made TIE rush and during the confu-
sion which ensued, some calling on us
to go forward, others to fall back, /
lay down, uncertain Just what to do.
In the interim 1 looked just in time
to see General Charles G.. Harker fall
from his horse. He was the only
mounted officer or person / saw. ]
cannot recall the color Of the horse.
nor could 1 say as to his leading n
charge. He was to my rear and left:
that is, beyond the extreme left of
McCook's brigade, which was refused
or not so close to the rebel works as
was the right wing, which was lodged
on the outside of the works at a point
about twenty feet from the angle to
the north. / could see the colors of
one Of the regiments planted in the
loose earth at the foot Of the works
and our men were lying fat on the
face of the breastworks in support Of
the colors.
Just az that scene was before me
1 had one side of my hat torn out by
a rebel bullet. This volley gave us q
chance to get the drop on the rebs and
the firing Stacked. 1t seemed to me
like pot hunting on the river below
Danville when 1 was a boy. The firing
got so slack that l got up and looked
around. Everybody was gone except
the dead and wounded. The brush and
underground screened me, and l
Strengthened myself Up and deliberate
ly walked back TO the ear until l
came to the rifepits evacuated by the
rebels some ways down the hill. As
l recall it now it seems to me that the
Johnnies must have thought that they
had killed enough Of us for one killing,
for when we had pulled ourselves to-
gether the soldier instinct resumed the
ascendant and officers and men re-
formed and pushed Zip to the brow Of
the hill, where we fortified within
twenty-seven steps of the rebels and
made it about the hottest place for the
space of the front of the brigade that
the rebels held at any time from Chat.
tanooga to Atlanta, and we kept it hot
until the rebels evacuated their posi-
ton July 2 and 8, 1864, when we fol-
lowed them to the Chattahooche
rlver."-Chicago Inter Ocean.