Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-05-15
Civil War Stories

York, First Division, First Army Corps,
the corps commanded by General John
F. Reynolds, when the battle of Chan
cellorsville was fought. For one reason
or another, and | suppose it was a good
one, though | have never succeeded in
definitely convincing myself to that eff
feet, our corps, splendidly differed and
IN good trim for hard work, did very
little fighting at Charlottesville. We
were thrown into line of battle,
changed about some, shelled little,
and on two or three occasions por-
ton of the line heard bullets whistle
but we didn't count that fighting
The day that General Dan Sickles
Third Corps, the boys who wore the
diamond badge, had their prolonged and
sharp fight, struggled out in that di-
rection without the consent of my Of
ficers, and had an experience the par
ticulars Of which / always recall on
Memorial Day. l saw many wounded
men on the ground, others who were
slowly getting to the rear and great
numbers of dead. Sitting by a large
stump, which had protected them from
the musket firing, were two badly
wounded soldiers, one a New Yorker
the other a Confederate. Besides a
bad wound in his thigh the Confederate
had been shot in the face. His clothes
and face were covered with blood and
he was a most woe-begone appearing
subject. The Union soldier had been
wounded In both legs above the knee
and had a severe shot in one Of his
arms
While I was talking with them that
portion of Sickles' line directly in their
front broke and the troops began to fall
back. What made it worse was the
prolonged yell" of the Confederates 50
familiar to every soldier who ever met
them in battle. Both of the wounded
soldiers begged me to help them get to
the rear. Assisting them to their feet
I put an arm around each body and
they an arm on my shoulders, and we
started. At first I almost carried the
two men, both Of whom were under
sized, but after going a few rods the
load was too great. They insisted on
walking, only depending ON me to keep
them erect. This they did with great
pain, though they had not suffered from
broken bones. We went more than a
mile before reaching an ambulance, in
which the poor fellows were tenderly
placed and driven across the Kappa
hammock. They were lavish with their
thanks for helping them from the field
and very anxious that should call and
see them at the hospital after the bat
tie.
When the army had returned to it's
old camps l got permission from the
captain to go to the hospital of the Sec
ond Division of the Third Corps. I
had very little difficulty in finding my
wounded friends. While they were re-
ceiving good care, both were greatly
emaciated and seemed to have lost con-
fdence. seemed to have made up their
minds that they would not live.
"The boy in blue and the boy in gray
were in cots close together, so that
they could talk with each other, for
they had become good friends. The
New Yorker whispered a request that
write letter to a young lady whose
address was Syracuse. He told me- that
he had expected to return and make
her his wife. 1t was a short letter, for
I had instructions to write only that
h oh no FOL of h Sc no
ing wounded, expressed the hope that
he would soon be we'll enough to be
sent home and asked the young lady
not to worry but to be of good cheer
To me he said: She will probably hear
of my death not long after she gets this
letter. l tried to convince him that
he would recover, that he would return
to the Syracuse lady, make her his
bride and live long and happily. but
with very Indifferent success. He was
tormented by the army plague-a pre-
monition. | shook hands with him and
wished him good fortune. In passing
the Confederate he extended his hand
for like recognition and asked: DO
you think my cllum there will get wellY
Yes, l guess so; l think you will
both get well, unless you lose your sand
and surrender too easily"
81 guess not, pard, l guess not The
old man with the scythe seems to be
coming our way. Our wounds were not
dressed soon enough. We bled too much.
We are very weak"
Both wanted me to come and see
them as often as possible. l continued
the visits. | went to see them on the
Goth of May 1t does seem very long
ago as l think of it, but it is thirty
four years, more than third of cen
tury Both were dead, had died that
morning, only half an hour apart The
attendant told me that the New York
err, when he felt that he was going,
asked him to wake up his Confederate
chum. He said they reached out their
withered hands, touched palms, whis-
pered their good-bys, closed their eyes,
and in ten minutes from that time the
Union boy was mustered out-a recruit
I'M