Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-02-03

as they march, is still another grove, |
the east wood, and in long, thin line, |
at right angles to the pike, stretching |
through the woods, through the corn |
field, silently awaiting their coming |
foe, are aligned the very men they |
fought so savageiy at sunset of that |
August evening barely three weeks !
back.
And, Just as before, not a man of the
hostile line is seen when the guns be-
gin the battle. OF to the left front,
near the east wood. a southern battery
spies the blue battalions issuing from
the skirt of the northward wood nearly
| mile away, dressed on their waving
colors, the skirmishers trotting well
out to the front. Then loud below the
guns and shrek the shells as line upon
! line, brigade upon brigade, Hooker
sends his new command, the newborn
First corps, in to its bloody baptism
The confederate flank is covered by
| Stuart and his dashing horse batteries,
and there is abundant room and more
than abundant need for similar troops
between Doubleday's right and the
river, but not SO much as squadron
rides where it may be of such infinite
service Mcclellan holds his horses
east of the dividing stream, for again,
as on the peninsula, are his forces thus
bestowed.
Full 500 yards, almost due south,
march the doubled lines in blue,
Meade's little division of Pennsylva-
mans alongside and east of Double
| days. Hatchs old brigade is on the
left of Gibbons, Patrick in it's rear, in
support, and for time the Sixth Wis
consin, at the post of honor, has the
| Hagerstown road on it's right for a
guide. But now comes thin patch Of
woods and turn-only slight turn
in the line of the pike, and here, little
| by little, through pressure from the
| center, the first company begins to
edge out over the highway, the second
| follows, and by the time they are
| bursting through the barnyards and
farm enclosures at Miller's, and the
| shells have changed to shrapnel and
men are dropping fast, the entire right
| wing of the Sixth is across the pike
| and wading through that westward
| field. Then up the pike, just as at
Gainesville, comes galloping battery
3D." and into the farmyard it turns,
and there, wh:rling the guns in line
to the south, delivers its resonant an
swer. The Sixth is just striding out
from the cornfeld and into the woods
to the west OF the road when, sudden
as a thunderbolt, there bursts the
crash Of an infantry volley, and from
front and right flank, so close that the
smoke jets forth in their faces, low
aimed lead storm shrieks through their
ranks and down goes half the wing.
/ htaZa hn NJ
the hedgerow south Of the cornfeld,
and all from an unseen foe! Flesh
and blood cannot stand such a gale
in the open. The survivors swing back
to the highway, rallying instantly at
the edge of the field, and there, fiat
on their faces, they take vigorous hand
in the fight, while Patrick's men, close
at their heels, rush in to prolong the
line to the right and fill the gaps at
the front. Five minutes-and both
woods, east and west, and the inter-
vening cornields are in dense clouds
of sulphur smoke, for Ricketts,, too, has
come up with his division on the left
of the corps, and a battle of giants is
on.
But vain are the efforts of Hooker's
brave men. Three fine, disciplined di-
Evisions he has led to the field, think
ing to turn an exposed left flank, while
Mansfield, with his new Twelfth corps,
supports the attack, and the main
army, advancing in force from the line
of the Antietam, covers and holds the
long confederate front extending far to
the south of the town. Just whom to
blame nobody will say, but. not until
Hooker's right division is swept by
tapping fires and fattened out by the
fierce storm of lead; not until Meade
and Ricketts,, farther to the east, have
charged again in line with Doubleday's
left; not until Doubleday, not whipped,
but brought to stand, is fairly bat
Ting for breath, do the brigades of
Mansfield appear at the east, coming
late into action, and even then by no
means prepared. Many battalions are
new and unskilled, and before the
brigade can be brought into line, gal
liant, gray-headed old Mansfield drops
dying from his horse. Williams sue
ceeds to commando but before Hooker
half finishes giving his orders, he, too
commanding all troops at that moment
west of the stream, is stricken and
borne from the field, stripping l. ehere-
by of both corps commanders, and
leaving the right to the care of men
ignorant of McClellan's plans, and con-
fronted by the best fighters in the
southern host
Campbell, the captain, is shot from
his saddle. Half the right wing of the
Sixth is gone. Half the commanders
. | are now killed or wounded. Not a
, lieutenant colonel is left in the Iron