Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-02-03
The Iron
! Brig de /
a A STORY OF THE ARMY g
OF THE POTOMAC
By GEN. CHARLES KING
Author of. Norman Holt ''.The Colonies
Daughter" .' Port Frsyns," Etc.
Cobyrazhs 1902. By G. W. Dillingham; o.
tContinued.l

But the tent flap is thrown back
from within and a voice bids him en-
ter. I've been writing tony poor
motherless babies,'' chokes the colonel,
and then at last breaks down, bows
his humbled head upon his arm on the
rude camp table that shakes with the
sobs wrung from an almost bursting
heart Who can picture, much less
soothe, a grief like this? Benton has
seen him time and again, ever alert,
ready, vigorous on the march, CHEEKY
and cordial in all manner of wind and
weather, inspiring, commanding, mag
nificent in battle, God-like, almost, in
his superb dominion over men. But
it is the strong and soldierly and virile
that love the deepest and that suffer
most when robbed of the hearts idol
and delight. ''The bravest are the
tenderest. The loving are the daring"
And in word1ess sympathy Benton
can only lay his hand upon the massive
shoulder while the teardrOps well from
his own trimming eyes.
And then there are voices, low and
deep, without the tent and then a foot
fall close at hand, and a tall, dark
form, enveloped in a cloak, looms be-
tween them and the gathering dawn,
and Benton, staring and only half
credulous, stammers the question,
who is it?' Then both men stand
erect and face the newcomer at the
first sound of his deep yet trem bling
voice.
1T is Abraham Lincoln (Can it
ever be written save in reverence?l
"I-T have h0canSn-a11
night long since you left could
think of nothing else. 1 have not
slept. have been pacing the floor I'M
til l could stand it no longer. You
came to me last night in your sorrow,
and treated you like a dog. For
give me, colonel. Take her back to
your children, and when you have laid
her away and comforted them-then
return to us. Go, sir-it is my order"
and, wringing the soldiers hands, the
president turns again to the cares and
trials. the cruel anxieties of another
day, but the deep-lined face, uplifted
to the glory of the dawn. shines trans
figured with radiance indescribable-
with who can say what infinite cheer
and comfort and blessing from on high.
CHAPTER XIX
KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS.
How are the mighty fallen!" AT
least in point of numbers. Still under
the leadership of sharp-eyed, sharp
| tongued Gibbon, the brigade has
| trudged away to South mountain, feel
| ing not a little cocky in its new name.
| Manfully again has it grasped the hot
end of the poker, being sent into
| the very jaws of Turner's gap
with ColQuitt and his Georgians
| directly confronting it, and Evans
raking the doubled line from
the hill on the right. Again does
the Seventh catch it hard from the
flank, losing more than third Of its
men. Again do the Black Hats sail in
with their accustomed saucy vim and
vigor, tieing the Hoosiers in the total
of losses Again are the big 'Napo-
leons,'' the pets of battery B." lugged
into line, side by side with the Foot, y
and nightly do they below and roar
IN this resounding amphitheater-the
eastward slope of the ridge. 1t is the
/ second fierce fight in which these pow
erful guns, manned by picked men
from the brigade, take their share OF
hard knocks with the four battalions;
but a fiercer fight is yet to follow-only
| three days away-one which Yields the
battery still more firmly to its sup
ports. On the far right flank, in front
of Sharpsburg, across the sleepy An
] tietam, it comes in for its hardest
pounding of all the stirring campaign.
But. by this time, mid September, as
Lees daring, determined followers halt
Of he oil 10 a n
town. with the Potomac encircling
them from northwest to south, the
winding Antietam protecting their
front, how cruelty are they, too, re-
duced in numbers! Our old opponents.
the 'Stonewalls,' in their entire array
can barely muster 500 men. Regiments
are commanded by captains, compa-
MES by sergeants, and as it is with
| Jackson so it is with LOngStreet,
whose brigades, like those of KempeI
and Pickett, are cut to shreds, while
| some battalions are reduced to the
front of a platoon. Yet these are the
fellows, less than 40 600 all told, who
backed up to the great river, with all
their trains and all their wounded to
care for, still confidently look to Lee
and serenely face Mcclellan, whose
force in men and guns is more than
twice their own.
Doubleday it is who now takes the
Head and, crossing the Antietam on the
afternoon of the 18th, bears down from
the extreme flank upon the silent, wait
ing foe.
First in column as it circles the
} front, the old division moves in to the
morning attack at the right OF Hook
, er's embatt1ed line, and right Of the
line of the old division is the doubled