The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-03-21
SOLDIERS AT HOME.
THEY TELL SON. INTERESTING
ANECDOTES OF THE WAR.
How the Boys of Both Armies Whiled
Away Life i'm COMPROMISING Ex-
periences, Mresome Marches-ThriI.
ling Scenes on the Battlefield.


Run and foot race to Washington. The
Second Wisconsin, our predecessors at
Camp Randall, was reported to have
been badly cut to pieces. How famil-
lar that sounds-"cut to pieces" May
l diverge? Yes? What soldier did not
hear it 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 1t
the army was great for a story to grow
In. The killing of a dozen men and the
capture of company I'm Buffers army,
across the James, was likely to be a
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
Ewells 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 Tn
ion 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
to undo the work OF the more rapid
marcner, Falsehood. 1t was glorious to
hear so dreadful 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 trent and cut Buffers
army to pieces it was "a fool
story" Funny fellows, those soldier
statesmen.
At Gettysburg Pickett's division was
cut to pieces, but it made 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 yirginians. They were OH
hand in many another contest--the sur
vivors of the memorable Gettysburg
charge-and their yell" and shooting
had lost none of their force They
were among the very last troops to stop
lighting at Appomattox.
Longstreet was wounded the 9th of
May, 1864. in ''the Wilderness" and
the report came to our battered, bleed
Ing line that Longstreet's corps had
lost its great leader and had been 'cut
to pieces" but in all the fighting. from
the Wilderness" TO the wind-up, Long
streets old corps. part of the time un-
der Anderson and for some time be-
fore tie curtain "rang down. under
Longstreet, that ''cut to pieces" COM
mand did right smart of mischief
struck powerful blows at Spottsylva-
MIA, Cold Harbor. Petersburg, etc.
Hancock's Second Corps-and what
a Jimdandy corps it was-was said 10
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 THE Closing Days of the Con-
federacy" will never forget a thrilling
story he tells about a hurried forma-
ton OF troops to charge and check
Hancock's men at ''the bloody angle"
When everything was in readiness to
make the charge, General Gordon saws.
General Lee placed himself at tho head
or 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
go 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 &C.
ton; and then. under another leader,
and l believe it was Gordon. the line
advanced and was frightfully cut to
pieces. But that line and others that
followed 1t 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 a brave
man had fallen. Trees were chopped
down by flying bullets. cut from an
oak more than a foot in diameter, so
chopped, Is at the Smithsonian Institu-
| ton, Washington. What a picture of
war presented itself on that field
what suffering, horrors, sacrifices,
slaughter. Yet Hancock's and the force
that opposed him there quickly mus
tered for Cold Harbor, less than three
weeks later.
The thousand men who composed our
regiment looked sober the morning
after first Bull Run. One of the regi-
mems in the battle had left the camp
we occupied only a few weeks before,
but now they were 'cut to pieces" We
were no less sober when, few hours
later, word came that we, too, must
move on Washington. How much that
meant. 1t meant battles for us before
we were ready for such work, we
thought. We didn't stop to think that
the folks on the other side were no bet
| ter prepared. 1t took two passenger