Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-03-09
On the Battlefield
[original.l


was advancing with the line when
was knocked down by bullet strik-
ing my hip. Not knowing that | was
badly wounded, l attempted 10 rise
AS did so I was knocked senselesa
by more lead striking my skull.
When regained consciousness was
in the center of a battlefield. | have
been exposed to shot and shell coming
from one direction, but this was the
only time in my life was obliged to
endure hot fire coming from two op-
posite points of the compass. l could
not rise to run away if would, and
had l risen would not have bettered
my condition. In the one case / would
have been shot down at once; in the
other must take the risk Of some mis-
sile either striking the ground where
lay or bursting near me. Round shot
coming from one direction passed near
above me, shells burst beside me, while
the air was alive with the songs of bull
lets, sweetly terrible. Something fell
on my chest and rolled off on to the
ground. / grasped it. 1t was a 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 lessening grew
6ercer. l must do something to get
out of it or be killed sooner or later,
since no one could live long in such
tempest. I raised myself on my elbow
to look about me. On my right was a
line of bushes They indicateda wa
ter course. If 1 could drag myself
there and find it what l supposed,
might get down into the water, where
I would be comparatively safe. The
desired line was several hundred yards
away. Nevertheless l determined to
make the effort
/ was obliged to pull with my arms
and push with one leg. The wounded
hip seemed like load of stone that /
was obliged to drag with me, to say
nothing Of the excruciating pain COM
ing with the slightest movement.
While l was working through dead
and wounded-always it seemed in my
way-I was stunned by an explosion
not ten feet above me, and for mo-
ment half conscious | supposed the end
had come. 1t was bursting shell.
Had it exploded just before it reached
me should have undoubtedly been hit
by it's fragments. Bursting directly
over me. it's motion carried them be-
yofd me.
l heard the thunder of horses hoofs
and knew that it denoted a cavalry
charge. The sound was far to my
right and to my left. l licked and saw
them coming. They would pass over
me. l would be crushed. They were
not in column fortunately, but In
line. On they came like troop of
fends, here and there a man falling
from the saddle, horse rearing and
plunging forward or dropping dead in
his tracks. l saw the Confederate
gray, but it made no difference to me
whether they were friends or foes,
Their mad ride had nothing to do with
mercy; it was to destroy. A 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 a
dozen feet of me-
Like a storm rack they had suddenly
doomed; like hurricane they had
passed, and as a receding tempest will
draw the wind in its trail they drew
the fire.
For time, relieved of the danger Of
lead and iron, / lay exhausted. Here
and there came a groan from those who
had fallen while the cavalry was pass
ing; then the fire grew hot again, and l
dragged myself on. 1t was that last
hundred feet which came near prevent
ing my reaching the goal. was half
an hour doing it. But at last / got to
the bushes and, pulling myself through
them, looked over the bank Of a
stream. The current set against the
bank l was on, and | saw that the
water was beyond my depth. Selling
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
wop~S!
in anihour the firing suddenly ceased.
Then 1 bethought myself Of getting on
dry l&nd. 1 pulled myself part way
up by the bush I held when found
it was loosening at the root. If I
bore my whole weight on it, it would
give way. l was in no condition to
swim and I should drown. l was no
longer between two fires. / was sus-
pended by a frail support over wa
terry grave.
heard a 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
a wounded Confederate who had