The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-07-31

I1OW MLN AL LIN bA L LL
In Harper's appears a narrative
of the battle of Solferino, as told by
veteran survivor to Robert Shackle-
ton. 1t is, word for word, a chapter
of history as seen by man in the
ranks. Incidents which impressed
him are curious:
"'We halted. And Tyrolese
lying on the ground, cried out: II am
dying. Give me to drink" Whereat
my companion stopped to offer him
a flask, and as he stopped the Tyrol-
ese struck savagely at him with his
bayonet, but my companion jumped
back, and it missed him; and he
said: You Tyrolese, you said you
wanted a drink before you died, and
now you shall die without the drink. !"
And he stuck his bayonet through
him as a boy would stick pin
through a fly.
The fighting soon began again,
and it was very fierce. 1t was soon
that we came to know that we were
to capture little village, and the
hills about the village. The village
it was named San Martino, 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 and earth, but most
of us would jump up again, not
wounded; but always there were
some who would not jump up again,
because they were wounded or dead.
cat the beginning OF battle
soldier feels afraid. At the begin
ming of this battle I felt afraid,
though it vas not our first battle, and
we knew what it was to be under
fire.
so it was that, at the beginning
we commended ourselves; we felt
like death; 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 few into pieces like the
smashing of jug. But we did not
care, We We thought nothing of it.
l do not know that we even knew
we saw such things; but some of
them come to me as l 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
a 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 touchholes, and so
we could not fire them. They were
of cours ge, those Austrians.
Only once in all that battle did
1 think much of what l 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 as he cried out. and 1T
was very bad sound. But it is just
as it chances. saw many men who
were hurt worse than that captain,
and many who were blown into little
bits, but did not trouble about them.
1t is just if it chances SO.
cit is very often that a man does
not know that he is hurt. I remem-
Der that once there was man near
me with great hole in his forehead.
I, inh
his bayonet, and I thought, He will
fall dead" But after that l saw him
no more, for there was always the
fighting.
1.-The storm and the blackness.
they made of us great mixing. Yes;
it was a very great tangling, for all
lines were lost, and | know that
sometimes Austrians struck at Aus
trians, and sometimes Italians ssrnek
at Italians, for we were in 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 we're
tired; for we had fought hard foc 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
or the wounded.
Tho wounded, they made very
great cries, and there were men sent
to go among them with lights Some
were surgeons, 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