The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-02-20

tight. and hoping that in Il moment my
good bayonet should revenge some
comrades blood. 1 found myself fat
upon the ground and heard Capt NJ. as
ne passed over my body, shout ont To
me. Lay low. boy And then | re-
aIzed that l was wounded For a
few moments l lay perfectly still. but
soon the pain in my groin told me
where l was hit. and I determined to
make desperate effort to get off the
iield, for 1 thought it very likely our
men would be driven back again.
Jared not examine my wound. for fear
should faint Finding / could make
some progress by using my rifle as II
,,,Ipln,t |, l slowly and painfully dragged
nh!seit to the rear.
The battle was still ra,ino, bebin5
me with unabated force. and the shot
ana smell from our own batteries aS
well as the enemy's were passino, o,.er
my mead, making deafeninq. nuIses on
every side lay the dead and wounded.
ana me sroans and appeals for h,ip
was pitiful Ia hear. | reached the
turnpike at last. and. beneath the
sheltering emba1l1mcnt examined
the nature of my injury. / was over
Joyed to lind that the supposed wound
was only very severe bruise, An
army cup which / carried on the out
side. and tin plate carried on the
4AaS'iF Va my nav tIStfk nae saved Tl.s.
The force of the bullet was such that
1t had taken a piece, clean out of the
cup. which was made of very thick ma
terial passed through the plate and the
bareback in my haversacll-it would
not take much hard bread of the kind
to stop a cannon-bali-and stopped just
short of my flesh. l have the piece of
cup now / was sent to hospital for a
few days until | could march again.
was sorry that necessity compelled
me to go, for some rascal stole NV
bianhet- and for the next week / slept
out of doors on the frozen ground with
nothing but my ordinary clothing and
overcoat on. Some of my young IL
year-old friends would think it quite
hard to do that in Decem Der. and
fear neither they nor their mothers. If
they knew 1t. would sleep much As
expected, the remnant of our regiment
was driven back from the position they
mad so brayely. and at such fearful
cost. won. When the so rounds OF
ammunition had been fired away and
TO fresh cartridges We're sent them.
they could only fall back. What grave
mistake for a General to charge an
enemy and then send no support to his
victorious iegionS, not even ammuni-
ton, while the rivers bank was lined
with fresh troops. From the time the
regiment left the turnpike on the
tH1i uliiIl returned was, L tnlnE,
less than an hour In that brief time
it lost more than one-half its numbers.
My own company carried the coiors and
our loss was 81 per cent in killed and
wounded.
Incidents.
The following are incidents of the
battle which came under my personal
observation: After the charge, and
while we were lying on our faces,
piece of shell struck one of our boys
knapsack, tore it open and lifted a pack
of cards, intact, high into the air,
when they suddenly spread apart and
fell to the ground like a shower of Au-
tumn leaves. One of our boys-now
in the United States Treasury-mount-
ed the enemy'S works. A Stalwart fel-
low sprang up and thrusting the muz-
zle of his gun full in his face fired it.
His face was burned and blackened by
the discharge. but otherwise he was
uninjured, and in an instant he thrust
his bayonet through the mans breast.
Probably the man had neglected to
put the bullet in after charging his rifle
with powder.
Numerous instances came to my no.
tice when, in the excitement, some
would put in the bullet end of cart
ridge first. In some cases men were
known to load their guns three or four
had great experience and is very cool,
he will fire too high. Nine out of ten
bullets go over the heads of the enemy,
and that is why the officers are always
shouting, Fire low boys; fire low!''
Lieut. A of my company was
saved by tintype picture in his breast
pocket, which caused the bullet to
glance off: another by pocket knife.
There were few in the whole regiment
who did not receive a bullet-hole
through some part of their clothing
Some years ago L revisited the bat
tle-field. The bodies of the fallen had
been gathered into the soldiers ceme-
terry just back of the city, near the
deadly stone-wall where the right of
our army fought. I walked down the
turnpike to where we charged. Ma
ture had obliterated nearly every sign
of the conflict; and the miry field.
across which we charged that eventful
December day. was covered with way
ing corn. The sun shone as clearly.
the birds sang as sweetly. and the
flowers doomed as brightly, as if that
field had never been plowed with shot
and shell, and fertiliZed with the blood
of the brave"
(To be continued)