Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-02-25
Lights and Shadows of War.

ut grim NlSdS6 OIL w dT III hdANAu
ria has been turned to the public so
long that people had come to believe
there were TO be no lights to offset a
single shadow in the terrific conflict
1t appears, however, that the grim
fighters on both sides are simply Or
binary human beings, given, like the
sturdy fighters of our civil war, to
frolic and fun even at inopportune
times. On Jan. 1, 1868, two veteran
armies were in line of battle at Stone
River There had been twenty hours
of the hardest fighting of the war
and each army was watching the 9th
er in expectation of a renewal of the
struggle.
The sullen quiet of the waiting lines
was broken by an uproar on the left A
score or more of hogs, startled by the
cavalry on the flank, scurried along
the Union front. At first a dozen,
then fifty, and then a hundred men
joined in chase to capture them.
The onslaught turned the hogs
toward the Confederate lines and the
Unionists pursued until they ran over
the pickets in gray and were warned
spontaneously to keep on their own
ground. Then the Confederates joined
in the chase and turned the hogs
again toward the Union lines The
men in blue had learned a lesson by
this time and opened a way for the
frightened hogs to run into the Union
lines, where they were caught and
killed.
Meantime there was much shouting
and frolicking on both sides, the Con-
federates insisting that the Yankees
should play fair and give them an
other chance, and some asking to be
remembered when the ..Yanks butch
cred The generals in command took
a serious view of the incident, but
nothing came of it.
The men who frolicked one hour
and fought like demons the next were
OF the same race and country and
spoke the same language and had
grown up under the same traditions
of home life But the other day at
Mukden hogs ran down the lines as
they did at Stone River forty-one
years ago.
Russians and Japanese-of antag-
onistic races, speaking different Ian
guages. and differing widely as to
home traditions and customs-joined
in the chase, as did the Unionists and
Confederates of Rosecrans' and
IL
the soldiers of Kouropatkin and Oya-
ma are not very different from other
soldiers
After the defeat of Rosecrans at
Chickamauga and his retirement to
Chattanooga, Bragg closed in on the
Union army and sent his pickets down
from Missionary Ridge into the plain
under the very noses of the Union
pickets. For several days there was
constant uproar of rifle fire on the
picket line.
Then by arrangement of the pick
cts themselves there was quiet and
later exchange of papers and a swap
ping of tobacco for coffee, the vedettes
on one side taking a friendly interest
in the comfort and conveniences of
the watchers on the other. A similar
state of affairs has prevailed along
the fortified lines on the Shakhe, with
limitations imposed on the pickets by
difference in language.
In the Atlanta campaign Gen. Sher-
man was conducting operations
against an officer who had been his
friend before the war and for whom
he entertained the highest respect In
the Mukden campaign Gen. Kouropat-
kin is matched against Japanese Off
GERS who less than two years ago hon
ored him as friend