The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-09-17


/ be made to feed the horses, cook tn
| rations and move the wagon trlii1. fol
l the order had been given the night pc
fore that we were TO march at five
O'Clock.
i Il had spcnt sick day, and a sicl.ei
\ night, md when In the morning was
4 relieved from duty, / went at once 70
my friend tho surgeon, for some medicine
4 Iacsenting perhaps the horse Incident.
4 got no sympathy and but scant polite
ness from him, and he ordered me TO go
4 back to the wagon train. That WIS m
order, however, the refusal to obey,
which, when fight was OH hand, no
military rule ever punished, so did not
| regard 1t.
! BY five o'clock we were on the march,
| the infantry and tho artillerists crossing
! the south fork Of the Shenandoah OF, a
| bridge OF wagons constructed In the night.
| The surgeon seeing my poor condition,
! rclented enough to permit MO to ride IN
the ambulance close behind tho battery.
i We had but Il few miles to go before we
came under the fire of the enomys ar
| tillery, and when 1t became pretty fierce.
| the ambulance driver, wheeling directly
around, commenced rapidly to retreat.
I was lying down at the time on tho
| floor of tho ambulance and had to roll
out quickly from the rear. J. then took
my place With the guns, and the ex-
cltement OF being under fire, seemed,
ultll VllSlll WIS Oyer, .lu aDc
medicine for me than any the surgeon
could have prescribed.
1t Is not my purpose to give m account
Of tho battle that ensued, which although
fought with comparatively few troops
was Of varying fortune, obstinate fight
ing and heavy losses on both sides, and
famous as the successful elimination of
one of the finest campaigns In military
history am asked simply to give the
narrative of q days experience Of Il
boy in battle, and hence my excuse for
the rather frequent use of the objection
able personal pronoun.
Our battery had changed position sew
raj tines under heavy fire, seeking
each time to get a better place from
which We could do more damage to the
enemy. Then crossing n muddy field
OF corn stubble. + was ordered by the
captain to run ahead Of the guns and
ask the colonel OF All infantry regiment
lying behind the shelter of a small hill
in from: Of us TO move out and let
out battery take position there. I ran
ahead and when reached there found
that the regiment was the Twenty-sev-
cnth of our brigade, the Stonewnll, with
Colonel Grigsby in command. Tho colonel!
soon had his men up fronted them ana
pu. them through few turns Of the
manual. to keep than cool | suppose,
because of the heavy fire OF shells that
they were under. In fine order they
moved off q little distance 70 the let
and gave room for the battery 10 take
their place. While waiting for the guns
TO come up. I walked off by the side
Of the colonei's horse, and when the
regiment halted and he dlsmounted.
stood talking with him With my arm
over his horses shoulder. He was COM
mending the qualities of his fine little
animal and felt for him truly when
later that day I saw him marching
along with a rifle on his shoulder and
only about twenty of his regiment be-
hind. The entire language of his reply
when he told me that his horse had been
killed in the fight may readily be
imagined by those who knew Colonel
Grissby.
The gradual advance from position to
position brought our guns at last, to-
gether with the guns of Captain Cnrpen-
ter's battery into place in Il field of
heavy wheat near the river upon the ex-
tTeme left of our division Here took
place what Colonel Henderson in his life
of Jackson describes as "a most de-
termined and stubborn conflict ana as Mt
kernstown at the closest range" The
infantry In front Of us, under General
Wnder, were holly engaged with SUI
TerIor force Of Ohioans and West Yir-
gInians, among the best troops Of the
fire Of the enemys artillery from the
left of their front and from near the
Lewis house, besides getting the full
benefit OF the infantry fire so close In
our front. After a while our Infantry,
yielding to superior numbers, broke and
fell back and through the guns, ana at
two hundred yards distance we emptfcd
our guns as fast MS we could load them
into the fast approaching line Of the
enemy. But we wholly allied to drive
them back and without infantry sup
port. VIC We're ourselves oblidgcd to linn
her up and go 10 the rear. One gun,
however, .thc once TO which ] belonged,
under the command of Lieutenant Davis,
was ordered to keep It's place and to
do what we could to check tho cnclny's
advance and to cover the retreat OF our
guns ana the broken Infantry line. l
remember perfectly the dlscouraging cf-
| feet which the fine appearance OF tho
! encmy's infantry line made up ,s as
| they illrmphantly advanced upon our
single and rapidly firing gun. They were
SO close TO us that we could almost see
| their teeth. and there was a momcntury
sense Of relief when | hear one Of tho
| otdcers call out never mind the men
shoot, the horses;' but such careless
people as they were. they shot both
horse aud men.
J Colonel Ilenderon In his Life of Jack
| son says: 'One gun alone, standing soli-
lary between the opposing lines essnyed
| 10 cover the retreat; but tho enemy was
|
were shot down, despite the shell and
grape which rent great gaps In the crowd
I cd ranks; the long blue wave swept on,
1 and leaving the captured piece IN rear,
1 advanced In triumph across tho field
4 But before this had quite happened
\ and when we could no longer use our gun
| and our horses had been killed, those
1 OF us that were left took up each his
individual line OF retreat remember a
feeling Of great surprise that was
| neither Killed nor wounded and hnye
/ no definite gecolloctior OF any nrtIllerist
leaving the gun with me as the enemy
4 took possession OF It. It has occurred
to me that possibly some OF us got away
4 with the casson. but upon further re,
Election ] think That we had only kent
the gun Itself on the field. londinp il
from thc Timber chest Al any rate We
lost the gun and remember running or
trying to run through tho tangled and
heavy wheat, almost ready for the har-
vest, ms best could. There We're but
few OF our people In sight but they were
marks FOR the fire OF The cnemy's In
fNnity, who also turned our captured
Eiu upon us and gave us some lo,inds
from H.. There seemed Ia la M nhnnn.