Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-08-28
DAILY. STORY
ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

ing my hip. Not knowing that l was
badly wounded. 1 attempted TO rise.
As l did so 1 was knocked se,lseless
by more lead striking my skull.
When / regained consciousness l was
in the center of a battlefield. 1 have
been exposed TO shot and she'll coming
from one direction, but this twas the
only time in my life l was obliged to
endure hot fire coming from two OPP
posite points of the compass. / could
not rise. tc run away if l would. and
had I risen l would not have 5bettered
my condition. In the one caSefI would
have been shot down at once in the
other | must take the risk of some mis-
sile either striking the grounds where l
Law or bursting near me. Round shot
coming from one direction passed near
above me, shells burst besidessme, while
the air,was alive with the SONGS of bull
lets. sEyyeetly terrible. Sonne. hing fell
on myt chest anS rolled OF on to the
ground l grasped it. 1t was 4 lump
of half melted lead. Two bullets had
met above me and been fused by the
impact The din of incessant thunder,
shrieking iron missiles. yells, grOans.
can only be described by! one word
hell
The fire instead of les Sening grew
fiercer l must do some thing to get
out of ii or be killed sooner or later,
since no one could live hong in such a
tempest. / raised mySelffOn my elbow
to look about me. On my right was a
line of bushes They indicated Il wa
ter course. If 1 couiCi drag myself
there and find it what Il supposed,
might get down into the water. where
1 would be comparatively safe. The
desired line was severalt hundred yards
away. Nevertheless determined TO
make the effort
I was obliged to pull with my arms
and push with one leg. The wounded
hip seemed like n load OF stone that |
was obliged to drag With me, TO say
nothing OF the eXcrucidtfng pain COM
ing with the slightest movement.
While l was working through dead
and wounded--always it1Seemed in my
way-I was stunned by an explosion
not ten feet above me, and for a mo-
ment half CONSCIOUSLY supposed the end
had come. 1t was bursting shell.
Had it exploded just before it, reached
me should have undOubtedlyibeen hit
by its fragments. Bursting directly
over me. its motfoni carried them be-
yond me.
/ heard the thunderIof horses hoofs
and knew that it denoted cavalry
charge. The sound was far TO my
right and to my left. IL looked and saw
them coming They would pass over
me. would be crushed. They were
not in column fortunately, but in
line. On they came like Il troop of
fiends. here and there man falling
from the saddle, horse rearing and
plunging forward or dropping dead in
his tracks saw the Confederate
gray. but it made no difference to me
whether they We're friends or foes.
Their mad ride had nothing to do with
mercy: 1t was to destroy. y lieutenant
was riding directly for me. With an
effort almost superhuman 1 raised my
self. He saw me, but only in time to
jump his horse over me- OF the first
file behind him two men saw his horse
jump and. suspecting some pitfall,
passed on either side of me. In the
second file, a loose line, one horse
jumped me: no other came within 4
dozen feet of me.
Like Il storm rack they had suddenly
doomed; like a hurricane they had
passed. and as receding tempest will
draw the wind in its trail they drew
the fire
For Il time, relieved. of the danger of
lead and iron. / lay exhausted. Here
and there came Il groan from those who
b.1 70 yr-I,i oII.x-
ing: then the fire grew hot again, and
dragged myself on. 1t was that last
hundred feet which came near prevent
ing my reaching the goal. l was half
an hour doing it. But at last I got to
the bushes and, pulling myself through
them looked over the bank of n
stream. The current set against the
bank l was on, and 1 saw that the
water was beyond my depth. Selling
a bush, let myself down and, buoyed
by the water, fioated immersed to my
waist
Oh, the blessed relief from pain
caused by that cool current about my
wound!
In an hour the firing suddenly ceased.
Then l bethought myself of getting on
dry land. 1 pulled myself part way
up by the bush 1 held when 1 found
it was loosening at the root. If
bore my whole weight on it, it would
give way. / was In no condition to
swim and I should drown. 1 was no
longer between two fires. 1 was sus-
pended by frail support over a wa
terry grave.
1 heard Il movement above me and
looked up. A FACET seemed to be-
long TO a corpse-appeared over the
edge of the bank. 1t was the face of
q wounded Confederate who had
dragged himself TO the bank either for
the same purpose / had or to quench
his burning thirst, or both. Stretching
out his hand, he bent a stronger bush
a short distance below me till 1t was