Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-03-22
SOLDIERS AT HOME.
they TELL SOMe INTERESTING
ANECDOTES OF THE wAR
40" the Boys of Both Armies whi1ed
away Life In COMPROMISING Ex-
periences, Tiresome Marches-Tbril-
n& scenes on the Battlefield.

nuh anu loot race to WASHINGTON. The
second wisconsin, our predecessors at
camp Randall, was reported to have
Deen badly cut to pieces. How famil-
lar that sounds-"cut to pieces!" Nav
d1Verge? Yes? What soldier did not
near 1t many times during his service
armies, corps, divisions, brigades, regi-
ments, companies, batteries, were re-
ported "cut to pieces; only a few are
left" Often 1t was true, but oftener it
was not, heaven be thanked Soil in
the army was great for a story to grow
In. The killing of a dozen men and the
capture of company in Buffers army,
across the James, was likely to be a
thousand killed, several thousand
wounded and five thousand captured,
when 1t was filtered down to the left Of
petersburg, with the sensational an
nouncement that Buffers army had
been attacked by Longstreet's and
EWelIs corps and ''all cut to pieces. "
Before the soldier statesman Of the
rank and file had figured out why
Grant and Meade had allowed Long
street and Ewell to transfer from the
Petersburg front to Buffers front and
cut his army to pieces" why the I'm
lon army had not swept over the Pc
| tersburg works and taken the old Vir-
| ginia city while the bulk of its defend
ers were cutting Butler to pieces -
Truth came struggling along the line
IN nd 4lo i
marcher, Falsehood. 1t was glorious to
hear SO dreadful a report contradicted.
! 1t was inspiring to hear the soldier
statesman Of the rear rank explain why
it would have been impossible for Lee
to withdraw twenty or thirty thousand
from Meade's front and cut Buffers
army to pieces-why it was "a fool
story" Funny fellows, those soldier
statesmen.
At Gettysburg Picketts division was
cut to pieces, but it made a record that
will be quoted as long as the world
stands. That was an instance when
the report was true; but it was not SO
true that the union army had no more
trouble from General Pickett and his
dauntless Virginians. They were on
hand in many another contest-the sur
vlvors of the memorable Gettysburg
charge-and their yell and shooting
were among the very last troops to stop
lighting at Appomattox. -~
Longstreet Vas wounded the 9th Of
May, 1864, in 1.-The Wilderness" and
the report came to our battered, bleed
ing line that Longstreet's corps had
lost it's great leader and had been "cut
to pieces" but in all the fighting, from
''the Wilderness" to the wind-up. Long
der Anderson and for some time be-
fore the curtain rang down" under
Longstreet, that "cut to pieces com
mand did right smart Of mischief
struck powerful blows Mt Spottsylva-
MIA, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, etc.
Hancock's Second Corps-and what
Jimdandy corps it was-was said to
have been cut to pieces at the time it
charged Lees lines near Spottsylvania
THE bloody angle"-capturing john
ston's division Of confederates Those
who have heard General Gordon's lee
ture on 1.-The Closing Days of the Con
federacy" will never forget a thrilling
story he tells about hurried forma-
ton Of troops to charge and check
Hancock's men at 1.-The bloody angle
tN
make the charge, General Gordon says.
General Lee placed himself at the head
Of the charging column and gave the
command to advance. Not a man moved,
but for rods on either side of him his
men, who loved him as no other gen
eral was loved in either army, began
to shout. General Lee to the rear
General Lee to the rear! We will not
60 a step until General Lee goes to the
rear Men gathered about his horse
and pleaded with their commander not
to lead the charge. They told him that
they would gladly charge, but he must
not lead them; they could not spare
him. When General Lee saw that his
power to command had been wrenched
from him by the brave fellows who did
not fear to go where they would not
allow him to go, he wheeled about and
started back, the men cheering his ac-
ton; and then, under another leader,
and l believe 1t was Gordon, the line
advanced and was frightfully cut to
pieces But that line ana others that
followed it and joined Hancock in
keeping up that dreadful musketry fire
all of that foggy, rainy May night, did
cutting to pieces that makes cold chills
dance up and down our backs Of those
who saw the field the next morning.
The wounded, or hundreds of them,
were killed by that ceaseless night fir
ing: the dead, in numerous instances,
were so riddled by the contending
forces that little more than a pool of
blood was left to tell where brave
man had fallen. Trees were chopped
down by flying bullets A cut from an
oak more than a foot in diameter, so
rboppeG. is at the Smithsonian Institu-
u; hnf afIDf1 nf