Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-03-10
The Iron
! Brig ade {
q A STORY OF THE ARMY q
OF THE POTOMAC -
-----
By GEN. CHARLES KING
Author Of Norman Holt. '"Yhe Colonel's
Daughter, % "Fort Frayne, Etc.
C0py..sAt 1892. By G. ". Dillingham; c.

lContinued.l
Then it is that the Iron Brigade, still
clinging TO the Mcpherson wood, gets
the word to fall back to its right rear.
covering the Cashtown pike. There it
is that they find their comrades of the
Sixth Wisconsin sternly facing the
coming storm despite the fact that
everything seems sweeping away be-
yond them; and Dawes, their acting
colonel, pointing backward into the
low ground, shows to the brigade COM
mander's astonished gaze that even
Gettysburg is practically lost, and
through that town lies their line of re-
treat-the only way to save those
precious guns.
Four o'clock, and still the batteries
of Hall and Stewart, with three hard
pounded brigades, hold their ground
on the ridge, while the valley behind
them is fast filling with Ewell's madly
exultant men, driving Towards beaten
divisions before them. To hang on
longer is simply madness. Beginning
at the right, therefore, stern and 81
lent. the devoted brigades give
ground slowly, still facing the foe, still
firing low and well. The crush comes
as the streams of wounded thicken at
the outskirts of the town, merging
with the fugitives of the Eleventh
corps and the roads and streets are
blocked by batteries, ambulances, stray
caissons and ammunition wagons, ali
in full retreat. The pinch of the fight,
the browning hour of the day, the
blOOdieSt battle of all the 40 hours of
thrilling combat, is here on the slope
to the north of the seminary, where,
from the teeth of the foe, from the
midst of their slaughtered horses, the
men of the west essay to drag and save
their pets, their comrades in every
fight and field, the black-mouthed,
smoking, heated, still laundering guns
of battery "B.
Davis and Daniel-two fighting
southern brigadiers they-are riding
madly among their powder-stained
men; driving them on in the face of
those stubborn wild westerners; point
ing their swords at the crippled guns.
where men are straining at the VIII eels
and slashing at the harness of the
slaughtered horses. Get those guns!"
shrleh the leaders. Square accounts
for the battle-fags lost in the cut!
But, between the surging rush of Caro-
lima, Mississippi and Georgia, with the
supporting Virginians at their back,
and that battle-scarred battery limp
ing slowly away down the pike, there
still interposes that stern, indomitable,
magnificent line in blue-all that is
left of the Iron Brigade-as, front to
the foe, closing ever on its cOlOrs, vol
leying steadily, defantly, unfinching-
ly into the very face of its outnumber-
ing, yet respectful, pursuers, it backs
away over the ridge, leaving over
third of it's membership strewing it's
tracks, another third having already
been borne bleeding away toward the
town, and SO, as the sun goes down on
the tremendous day, so, slowly, stead
| fly wrapped in clouds of its own bat
tie smoke, the eastern brigade descends
to the plain the Sixth last to halt in
! the streets of the town and to cheer to
| the echo the cause of the flag, while
| the guns once more unlimber, on the
rise of Cemetery Hill, as though daring
the foemen to come on and take them.
No wonder the Badgers grip hands
with the Wolverines, they that remain
Almost 500 of the Michigan men went
into the fight by the side of the vet
!
at last the day is done. Fully 300 have
been shot down on the field; some few
have been captured. In officers alone
their dead outnumber those of the rest
of the brigade. Of the Black Hats
surviving there stand now but 20.
"And they might have cut you of
entirely" says Doubleday, as he rides
among the remnants, hating along the
wooded hillside, east of their rescued
guns. "Buford saw, what you couldn I
see through the smoke, that two bri-
gades were sweeping down south OF the
seminary to intercept you. He formed
his squadrons to charge. They saw it
by jove, and halted and formed
squares to resist him. and that saved
you Capt. Benton, l wish you would
ride over and present my compliments
and thanks to Gen. Buford. He's JUS
moving off past that stone farm house
yonder down in the valley" And Sc
ended the day.