Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1905-01-12
At Kenesaw.

IAN old diary" said a One Hundred |
and Twenty-Flfth Illinois man, ere.
minded me of that mysterious man on |
horseback at Kenesaw. This Is what |
| 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 q mountain, up the |
sides of which are sllirmish pits, and |
near the top seems to be breastworks, |
with here and there embrasures for
batteries. We soon know that the bat |
teries are In place all right, and nine
teen of our cannon open to reply to
the rebs on the top of the mountain.
At the same time furious thunder
cloud comes up and joins in the hurry
burly, and such n roaring, shaking
and quaking as ensued is seldom wit
nessed.' That reads like 1t was writ
ten at the front, under the conditions
stated by soldier present and par
ticipant. He was at the foot of Kene-
saw, in Georgia and belonged to Col.
Dan McCooll's brigade, all right, but
when he made his record he did not
History later made the name mem
orable; incidents OF few days later
fixed themselves on my memory, es-
pecially the charge of June q, 1864,
on the dead angle of Kenesaw, by
Col. McCooks brigade. belonged to
company X, One Hundred and TWEEN
ty-Fifth Illinois. Our colonel, Oscar
F. Harmon of Danville, H.. was killed
after Col. McCook fell while command
ing and leading the brigade in the sec
ond effort to rush the works. He was
within the twenty-foot line of the
enemys works. My place was on the
extreme left, and after we had made
the rush and during the confusion
which ensued, some calling on us to
go forward, others to fall back, lay
down, uncertain just what to do. In
the interim | looked just in time to
see Gen. Charles G. Harker fall from
his horse. He was the only mounted
officer or person l saw. | cannot re-
call the color Of the horse, nor could
[ say as to his leading a charge. He
was to my rear and left; that is, be-
yond the extreme left OF McCooks
brigade, which was not so close to the
rebel works as was the right wing,
which was lodged on the outside OF
the works at 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 lyiI
fiat on the face Of the breastworks Al
support of the colors.
Just as that scene was before me
had one side of my hat torn out by a
rebel bullet. This volley gave us a
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 l was n boy. The fir.
ing got so slack that got up and
looked around. Everybody was gone
except the dead and wounded. The
brush and underground screened me,
and | Strengthened myself up and de-
liberately walked back to the rear I'm.
til l came to the rife pits evacuated
by the rebels some ways down the
hill. AS / recall it now II seems to
me that the Joannies must have
thought that they had killed enough
of us for one killing, for when we had
pulled ourselves together the soldier
instinct resumed the ascendant and Of
dcers and men reformed and pushed
Up to the brow of the hill, where we
fortified within twenty-seven steps of
the rebels and made it about the hot
test place for the space of the front Of
the brigade that the rebels held at
any time from Chattanooga to Atlanta,
and we kept 1t hot until the rebels
evacuated their position July Q and 3,
1864, when we followed them to the
Chattahoochee river."-Chicago Inter
ocean.