Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-08-10

corps of Sumner shouts with modified
rejoicing. The men of Mansfield rise
and salute in silence. The thinned bat
talions of the First corps make no sign
whatever.
Witnessing this sight, Fred Benton
contrasts it with another which it was
his privilege to note the previous day.
He and other officers had been sem I'M
der flag of truce within the picket lines
of the southern army, to seek the
wounded and TO render aid. All about
the barn and buildings of the Miller
farm, where the brigade had rallied and
hung SO long, lay scores Of stricken
men for whom the surgeons were do
ing their best, but so very many
seemed past help. Along the pike the
Georgians, too, lay thick, and gray
uniformed officers moved to and fro
among them, or conversed in low tones,
curiously scanning from time to time
| the two or three staff officials in blue
| who followed the surgeons, pencil and
notebook in hand. Suddenly the talk
ing ceased, for, issuing from a narrow
roadway that trended westward from
the pike, there came a tall, command
~ing-looking officer, gray-bearded, yet
alert, a soldier who acknowledged
with grave courtesy the salutes that
greeted him IN every hand. Men
sprang to their feet and gazed at him
almost in alteration. Even the wound
ed strove to rise. Some few hailed him
with feeble, childish voices. AS for
Benton and his two associates, they
needed not the little group OF staff and
orderlies to confirm them in their be-
lief. They knew him at a glance-the
great Virginia leader-and Benton, in
stantly, the others following, stepped
forward and stood at salute. Lee saw
1t, and turning SO as to half face the
northerners, with punctilious courtesy
lifted his hat, then quickly refined back
as a ~dust-covered, battle-stained bat
terry came jingling out from the lane
and, turning into the highway, pulled
YEARLY on to where the spires of the
Maryland town pierced the blue be-
You'd the southwark wood. Jaded ant
worn were the horses, black and pow.
der-stained the men, and of a sudder
ging along beside his gun, caught sigh
Of the group Of horsemen, darted from
his place to where the commanding
general, the picture of the soldier ant
the gentleman, sat in saddle at tn
roadside, and there, with boyish laugh
held forth a grimy hand. Its Bob,
he cried. Don't you know me
father?" And Lee, the cavalier, ben
low and with love and tenderness, witt
who can say what pride and rejoicing
clasped the hand of the private tsoldie
in the Rockridge artillery, his gallan
younger son. In what other arm,
would one see the like of that!
7 Then the general rode on toward tn
: bunker church, where still the men Q
: Jackson lay in readiness, and then up
J rose rank after rank with mighty shou
that marked his onward going adow'
! the weary yet intensely loyal line unit
: lost within the distant walls of Sharps
burg. Despite the dire carnage Of tn
day OF battle, there beat no soldie
heart in all the southern host that wa
3 not true to Lee.
4 Presently, as the time accorded fc
: their sad mission had well nigh ex
: pired, Benton was aware of a youn
8 oiicer, in the uniform Of the horse al
!, tillery, who had been chatting wit
comrades across the way. and now, e: