Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-08-14

the enemy and the Union forces tool
possession of the entire island. TM
night before the evacuation my com
papy was assigned to picket duty, and
from after dark until nearly dawn !
stood with three other men on q pos
on the beach. All night the rebels were
firing shells with unaccustomed &C
tivity, endeavOring to conceal theil
preparations for evacuation. We
would watch their shells as they went
up In the air. leaving tail Of fire be
hind them, and then note the angle Oh
their fall You could hear the con
tinual ''where-is-yer," ''where-is-yer,'
''where-is-yer," as the sound had be
come to be Familiarity characterized
and then when it would burst with ''I
found-yer" we kept keen lookout tt
see whether any of the pieces were
coming our way. No accident hap
pened, however and just before day
break we We're put into a parallel
which had been dug during that night
and which was hardly deep enough foI
man Of average height to stand up In
without showing his head above the
sand bags, So we all sat down with
our backs against the sand bags and
resigned ourselves to the task Of wait
ing. We had nothing particularly to
do, but simply to stay there, and sc
the only injunction was that we should
not leave the parallel.
About II O'clock l went nearly to the
end of the parallel and there group
of us, consisting Of the orderly ser
geant, the second lieutenant Of Com.
pany G and Lieut.. Webb Of Company
+, began to Kill the time in telling
stories Webb had got piece of board
which he had put against the sand bar
ricade and against which he leaned
A particularly funny story had been
told and we We're all laughing heartily
when we heard the lookout at the
Whitworth battery call out johnson
and we saw shell go up from that
fort anS burst in the air. We had nc
idea that we were in any danger, but
one of the pieces came our way, STRUCK
Lieut.. Webb in the forehead and took
the whole top Of his head right off
scattering his blood and brains over the
rest of us as we tumbled back on te
the ground OF course he was killed
instantly, but the sight he presented
was, | think, the most CHASTITY / even
witnessed. ] have seen men who have
died under almost every condition, by
shot, by shell, by accident, by writhinG
pain and by cOnvulsiSn, and some have
had terribly distorted features during
the last paTOXysms before life was fin
ally extinct, but have never seen any
thing which was quite SO horrible as
the sight presented by this officer or
that occasion The rigor mOrtis was
| instantaneous with the shot, and there
he sat bolt upright against the board
his mouth extended on a broad grin,
| his eyes starting from their sockets and
| with no roof to his head. 1t was some
| minutes before we could collect ouI
| senses sufficiently to lay the poor fel
low down and to straighten him out SO
| that he would present the appearance
| of a decent corpse. p. We couldn't take
| him away from there at that time, but
| we managed to get blanket and put
over him, and he lay there until after
! the evacuation was completed and Fort
Gregg and Battery Wagner were oc-
cupied by our forces. This was only
| few hours afteEWard, for q little after
noon they opened Oh us with their Co,
horn mortars, pitching the shell right
/ over into our works, but without doing
| any particular damage. Before night
| they had got away from the island and
we were in full pOssession.--Frank T.
Howe In Washington Star.
rs that Grist-M1H Sti11 Standing:
| While on "A raid under General
Stoneman, bear the close of the war,
passing through wild and barren re-
gion, we found ourselves short Of ra-
lions for both men and horses.
Although foraging at that time in
that section Of the country was con-
| sidered rather dangerous, l, for one
| resolved to run the risk, and agreed
| with comrade to leave the command
| at the first diveTging road we came to,
| and see what we could see. The road
proved to be but little travelled, and
| for about mile seemed to gradually
descend down, down, until we discov-
| cred stream Of water, and, to our
surprise and delight, something re-
| sembiing a grist-mifl. But was that all
we discovered? Oh, no! There were
| four horses hitcbed near the mill, and
| their four riders seemed to be intently
busy in and about the mill Who and
what are they? JOhnnies? was the
all absorbing question in our minds as
we cautiously approached them. But
we sooL recognized them as belonging
| to our own command-boys of the
Twelfth Ohio and Eleventh Michigan
| Cavalry.
Hastily dismomfing, we hitched our
i