The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-07

An appalling Ound as of a thousand
thunderbOlts- squirt of flame and fire
"a cloud of dust and smoke that hid
the startled sky from the trembling
earth-an where there had been a green
hillside there was now a blackened,
desOlate heaD of torn earth and stones
and mangled cOrpses-while a few mu-
tilated. terrified survivors, iinped down
the hill.
Before the smoke had cleared away
The Boys soldierly eye had seen the
opportunity to strengthen his position
before the terror and confusion of the
enemy subsidized. A few brief orders
were given. and the men worked as
they had never worked before
Jennings with ten men ran down to
the house and brought back water,
food and tools for entrenchment. They
divided in squads, working five min
utes each. They first made a deep
shelter for the women. and then threw
up slender ridge of earth from rock
to rock; those not working keeping up
steady fire, replied to in increasing
volume by the Chinese. And so the
weary day wore on. And all the day
the stars and bars ffoated over the
Boys in Blue.
If in its brief and stormy past. that
flag had ever stood in part for any
injustice or wrong, on this day of DAYS
II stood for naught save Love and
Honor. Surely, surely the Angel OF
Wrath. though he looked with exulta-
ton when that flag went down. de-
feated. in the dust and smoke of n
thousand battles, yet thrilled with
pride and tears and Joy to see it's silk
en- folds flung to the winds again!
Thrice that long. long day a yellow
wave swept up the hill to the little
rampant; and thrice the dauntIess valor
Of its defenders made the stubborn
circle good. And with each wave men
gave their souls ungTudgingly to God:
and the little garrison grew less and
less.
The women bound up wounds and
gave drink to dying lips: but none
complained, none muFmured At each
onset The Boy and Ritter fought i'm
the foremost rank; each setting an ex-
ample Of deadly desperate courage.
And ever as the flood rolled backward.
writing in defeat, The Boy looked up
to the faded cOlOrs that flew defiantly
in the sun, as if to invoke the mem
cries of the mighty dead
They built in COrpses. white and vel
low in their meager wall; they stripped
the dead of cartridge belts, and the
wounded and dying loaded fresh rifles
for the thinning number that kept the
came on apace.
The sun was nearly down when Ser
geant Jennings got his death wound.
He said no word, but with his last
strength walked slowly to a low place
in the wall and laid his bleeding body
in the gap
1t was done so simply and so much
as matter of course that in the pitch
to which the mems nerves were strung.
1t seemed a perfectly natural action.
calling for no protest; and when I'm the
next 1un The Boy went TO him. his
gallant soul had gone to it's own place.
A dense throng rushed up the hill for
a last charge: and the few feeble sur
vtvors braced themselves for a final
effort. They rolled huge powders down
the hill into the shrieking. seething
mass: they loaded every gun and emp
tied them into the frantic mob-but
they came on-on, though they fell like
wheat. and the foremost were over the
rampant.
A fierce short struggle-elubbed
musket against sword and knife;
thrusting, striking. stabbing, swaying-
then the thunder of horses feet. the
crash of regular volleying. the ringing
Anglo-SaxOn cheer, Help had come.
and the ignoble hosts fed In fear.
while the long-range rifles exacted
fearful vengeance from them
And the rescuers. English and Amer
lean. looked and wondered. while Union
Jack and Old Glory were lowered once
and again in reverence to a fallen and
discredited flag.
slope slippery with blood strewn with
corpses. trarpled into mire bysa thou
sand feet. Two weeping women knelt