The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-21
HOW SOME MEN
 ACT IN BATTLE

In Harper's for July appears remark able narrative of the battle of solferino | as told by veteran survivor to Robert Shackleton It is word for word a chapter of history as seen by a man in the ranks. Incidents which impressed him are cu- rious
 ' We halted. And Tyrolese, lying on the ground, cried out: T am dying. Give me to drink" Whereat my companion stopped to offer him d flask, and as he stepped the Tyrolese struck savage at him With his bayonet, but my companion jumped back and it missed him, and he said, You Tyrolese, you said you want cd a drink before you died, and now you shall die without the drink" And he stuck his bayonet through him as boy would stick a pin through fly. The fighting soon began again, and it was very fierce. It was soon that we came to know that we were to capture little village and the hills about the vil- i lage The village 1t was named San Mar ! tino, and there were walled barns and gardens, and the Austrians were very strong there.
 " The bursting of the shells was very bad Sometimes all of us close by would be thrown down and be covered with mud
 
 again, not wounded; but always there were some who would not jump up again, because they were wounded or dead.
 '' At the beginning of a battle soldier feels afraid. At the beginning of this battle I felt afraid, and 1 know that other men felt afraid, though it was not our first battle, and we knew what 1t was to be under fire.
 "So it was that at the beginning We Ja,l fa1t Ii 1, but soon that passed away, and we thought no more of death, but only of the killing of the Austrians.
 All around me men were killed. There were heads and arms blown off, and men flew into pieces like the smashing of jug. But we did not care. we. We thought nothing of it. I do not know that we even knew that we saw such things, but some of them come to me as I sit with you and talk of that long day. We did not notice and we did not think that at any moment we too might have our heads blown off or be smashed into little pieces like the breaking of jug.
 "Once when we rushed over the big guns and killed the men who still fought with us, we turned the guns to fire on the Austrians as they flew away. but they had driven bits of steel into the touch- holes, and so we could not fire them. They were of a courage, those Austrians.
 i" Only in all that battle did I think much of what I saw or heard, and that was when there was the so terrible screaming of a captain who had his foot shot off. He twisted and turned he cried out, and it was a very bad sound. But it is Just as 1t chances. I saw many men who were hurt worse than that cap tain and many who were blown Into lit- tie bits, but I did not trouble about them It is just If it chances so.
 " It Is very often that a man does not know that he Is hurt. I remember that once there was a man near me with great hole in his forehead, but he ran right on with us with his bayonet, and I thought, "He will fall dead" But after that I saw him no more, for there was al- ways the fighting.
 "'The storm and the blackness they made of us a great mixing. Yes; it was a very great tangling, for all lines were lost, and know that sometimes Austrians struck at Austrians, and sometimes Ital- fans struck at Italians, for we were in a very great mixing and very fierce In the blackness of that storm.
 "'We were told to lie down and sleep. So we lay down where we were, among the dead and the wounded, among the Italians and the Austrians.
 "And we slept. Yes; we were tired; for we had fought hard for all that long, long day, and on that hill that at last we had gained we slept and we gave no heed to the dead men nor the wounded
 " The wounded they made very great cries, and there were men sent to go among them with lights Some were sur geons and some were men to carry them to the field hospitals. But the most of us, we lay there and slept, and we were very tired, and we knew that with the morning there might be another fight"