Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-01-04
TELLING OF
HIS BATTLES


q 0CSiuueu COuuIry lie anu every sum-
mer took his family to a place he had
QUILT as far as possible from any one.
There we were to be married in June.
l took everything l needed with me ex-
cept a razor, for l could never shave
myself without leaving sundry gashes,
ana one doesn't wish to appear with a
hacked face on a day when he would
look his best. But on arriving at Elm
wood | was Mortified to discover that
there was no barber there.
On the morning of my wedding day
l aW0ke with stubble face entirely
united for the occasion. After break
fast l questioned the servants and
found that five miles distant lived a
man who at times barbered the farm
ers He was a German by the name
OF Manteufel, and had served in the
civil war, having reached the noncom-
missioned grade of sergeant. l rode
out on horseback in search of Manteu-
fel, and while inquiring the way to
his farm it seemed to me that my in
formants looked at me with curiosity
not unmixed with awe. Upon asking
a boy If there was anything remark
able about the veteran he said that a
saber wound he had received in the
head he somewhat unsettled his
brain. People dreaded to get him to
talking about his battles, because he
usually became very excited in de-
scribing them.
When l came to ManteufePs farm
knew I had reached my destination,
for on the little porch sat a soldierly
looking man with fierce gray mus
taches, smoking his pipe. l asked him
If he would shave me. He hesitated,
spoke to some one within the house,
then said that he would. I dismount-
ed, and as l entered the gate scared
looking little girl in a blue sunbonnet
went out of it and hurried down the
road.
/ was invited into a small room.
where Manteufel had improvised bar
ber's chair and stretched myself upon
it. Manteufel was very deliberate in
everything he did, and it seemed to
me that he was thinking about some,
thing besides shaving me. He spent
some time examining couple of
razors, then selecting one Of them be-
gan to strop it leisurely. After he had
done so for some time, l began to won
der why he was so long about it, es-
pecially as he seemed to be. stropping
his feelings at the same time.
There is no time when a man is
more keenly sensitive TO unimportant
than just before his wed.
ding. AS l sat there watching the
ex-sergeant putting an edge on the
blade he was to hold in such close
to my throat began to wish
myself out and away. There was not
a sound in the house save the razor
beating against the strop. 1t occurred
to me that if the eX-sergeant should
get to dreaming of his battles the
wound in his head might lead him to
fancy he stood over fallen Confed-
crate who must be dispatched at once.
Being nervous, | committed bunder,
touching on what l should have
avoided
Sergeant" l said. and stopped, see
ing my istake.
Zach; you know l was a soldier.
How you know that?"
81 didn't know it. p
ga soldier once a soldier is always
soldier. fights NIT Sigel, fights NIT
Meade, l fights nit Grant"
l had applied the match to the in
fuel, and must listen to more
horrors than l had ever heard before
in all my life put together. In illus
trating how he had severed a Confed-
crate head from the body with saber
he used. the razor, initiating the hit
and draw motion necessary to do
good job Of cutting. In back stroke
with which he had saved himself from
an enemy in rear, while fencing with
one in front, he knocked over a lamp,
scattering it in small bits ON the floor.
Then, describing how he had on dark
night crawled upon and sabered a
sleeping picket, he crawled up to me,
razor in hand, his eyes gleaming-my
hair standing on end-his nostrils di-
lated, every muscle of his body on the
alert
A man just before his wedding is not
only, Fas l said, keenly alive to unim-
portant happeniags. but underssuch "a
strain ais this especially mindful that
a tragedy at such a'time is doubly hor-
rible My mind .darted back and forth
between groom standing beside his
blushing bride, receiving congratula-
tiohs. and that same groom lying in a
BARRIERS chair with his throat cut from
ear to ear. If 1 had only dared to rise
and say that would not be shaved aft,
er all!
''But vat remember BEST" he went
on, ''vas the charge we made ON q
Confederate battery in the Wilderness.
l and my company-captain and lieu
tenants all killed. in command led
the way. lost my saber, seized a
bayonet and plunged it into the heart
4 L. l. u