The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-16
PRIZE FIGHTER
Had the Regiment BIuffed, But Was
Scared While in Battle.

! (Macon (Mo.) Cor. St. Louis Republic.)
| 1T is rare that the prize fighter is a
| good soldier" said Major s. G. Brock
/ who went through the war in the Army
| of the Potomac. when l was captain
of company H. Sixty-seventh Ohio. we
had a strapping big fellow named
/ Frank Blaine with us. Blaine was an
! expert boxer. and he had all his conf
rades teTrOrized because of his agility
/ with his fists.
! The boys became afraid TO box with
/ him, and Blaine dropped into the habit
! of knocking them around out of pure
! devilment. I reprimanded him fire.
/ quently. of course. and he would laugh
! ingly retOTt that he was just trying to
| train the soldiers muscles.
AT the battle of Winchester, in 1852
/ our company. like others. was rushing
| into action. While climbing over q fence
| l noticed a man lying down with his
! face to the earth. He did not seem 20
| be wounded, and I Investigated. / pulled
/ his head up and found that It was
Frank Blaine, the prize fighter. l said:
Are you hurt. Frank
'N-n-n-o. sir he chartered.
Then Why don't you go on with the
| boys?
'He stood up and looked at me with
| trembling lips. His face was white as
chalk
""The Gods truth is, captain, ,he
said, I'm scared to death
Il saw that his fright had mastered
him, in spite of his strong will. He
dreaded the charge of cowardice almost
as bad as death. but he just gave way
I'm one supreme moment Of terror. There
We're little men of the company. not
half the size of Frank, who were fight
ing CALAMITY in front. There were men
there whom I had seen Frank knock
half way across the camp. and yet they
were doing their duty in way that
ought TO have shamed the big bruiser.
Il finally got him into the line. and
he faced the music fairly well. 1t was
a terrifc1ly hot fight. and happened to
be the only one of the civil war where
StOnewaii Jackson was defeated. After
the battle Frank came to me and
pleaded with tears in his eyes not to
tell the boys. and I promised, on condi-
ton that he would quit knocking them
around.
About the most distressing sight in
war time is the odium heaped upon a
man whose 1agrant act of cowardice
has become So notorious that the disci-
pline OF the army demands he be made
public example. Such a thing happened
at Suffolk. Va. in 1863. A soldier de-
serted a thin skirmish line and fed ig-
ANONYMOUSLY to the rear.
THE desertion was witnessed by so
many and the culpTit was so needless
regarding the publicity of his shameful
/ behavior that il became absolutely nee
! essary TO show the soldiers what cow
ardice in the face of the enemy meant.
So the army was lined up on both sides
Of the street. the frightened soldier
stripped of his uniform and boards
I bearing the word coward were hung
TO his breast and back. On either side
was a soldier carrying a musket. In
the rear walked a drummer playing the
| 'Rosues March, As the coward passed
through the lines the soldiers ieered.
He did not dare raise his eyes. Had he
possessed a particle of manhood he
would have preferred death ten times
over TO such humiliation. but ne seemed
to be one Of those curious freaks we
run across now and then in whom
every sense of pride is absolutely eX-
tinct. He passed on down the line. out
in the woods, a man without a home
and without a country