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

was a noble young fellow in my COM
pany. He was struck in the back by
a spent cannon-ball. We had time to
give him a hasty burial before we
moved forward.
The Order to Advance.
about half-past l p. m, came the
word to advance. Between us and the
enemy, a distance of half a mile, lay
an open field where corn had been
planted the preceding Summer. The
ground. frozen the night before and
thawed again at noon, was miry and
treacherous,s and we often sank half
way to our knees. At intervals deep
bitches had been dug for drainage.
Just before the order came for us to
advance, Col. Root, the brigade
commander, rode down the line
and spoke words of encour-
agement to us. Boys, dcn't judge
when - but before he could fin
ish the sentence, a shell whiZzed so
close to his head that he himself
lodged very emphatically. He added
with laugh, But You may dodge big
| ones like THAR And we gave cheers
for our commander, who. if he would
dodge a shell, was a brave man. Now
our line moved forward a dozen yards,
when the order came: Halt. Unsling
knapsacks, Fix bayonets,' Then /
knew that we were to fight the enemy
with cold steel. Before we had time
| to execute the order to unsling KNAPP
sacks, one man in my company was
Invested of his by a movement not
| found in any book on military tactics.
A piece of shell struck his blanket.
which was closely rolled and strapped
on the top of his knapsack. just behind
the back of his neck, and the moment
UNI of the missile was such that for u
moment man and knapsack revolved
around each other and then they part
ed company. Again came the order
! Forward The bullets now began to
sing angrily about our ears, and our
men began to fall. The one with whom
the first victims The ball entered his
| leg with thud which | shall
never forget and he fell to the ground
with a cry of I'm shot, The COM
pany to which I belonged was the color
company. and the two brave fellows
who carried the flags, as soon as the
order to move forward was given,
stepped out of the ranks in advance of
the others. and maintained that posi-
ton during the charge. 1t was a dar-
| ing deed for the enemy's sharpshooters
always seek to pick off the color guard.
| They were soon made commissioned
officers for gallantry. Down to this
| time I had felt nervous. and my knees
trembled and legs felt weak l ac-
knowledge that / was afraid. but be-
| ing afraid and yielding to fear are two
| different things. When my mother
babe me good by the day my regiment
left for Washington. she put her hands
upon my head and said: My son, new
er let me hear that You turned your
back to the enemy The remembrance
of that pale face and her command
were of themselves enough to make
one brave, but 1 needed no such in
centive, for when 1 saw my comrades
falling on either side. fear left me and
all my angry passions We're aroused
The tears trickled down my cheeks
and I believe I could have fought q
whole army. I was clear mad.
| I'VE had traversed about half the
| distance between the turnpike and the
enemy, when we were obliged to pass
through a line of our troops who were
firing. We halted and fired a dozen
or more rounds ourselves. 1 remem-
Der that while I was reloading, my Or
derby Sergeant, who was in rear of the
company, discharged his rifle. The
muZzle was so near my ear that it stun
ned be for a moment. I dubbed my
rifle, turned to him, and above the din
of battle 1 cried. George Bisbee, if you
dare do that again I'll - Here
|
did not finish the sentence. Now
came the order, Cease firingn And
then, Charge bayonets. Forward-dou-
ble-quickl' We had now a quarter OF
mile of muddy ground to traverse
and deep bitches to leap down into
and Chamber up out of, in the midst OF
a terrible fire. With each advancing
step the fire of the enemy increased
The air was filled with bursting shells
grape and canister and mimic bullets
So thickly did they fall around us that
the dirt was constantly scattering in
my face. Instinctively we bowed ouI
heads to this fierce storm as we swept
on. There were great gaps in oul
ranks as one after another fell under
the awful fire, but there was no finch
ing. no hesitation, as with swift steps
i and stern faces we moved across the
few remaining yards of ground toward
the long row of leveled rifles from
which were belching forth smoke and
death. With one fierce. determined cry
our men went over the embankment
There was only a brief conflict.-the
enemy fled pthe hill. followed a short
distance by our troops.
/ Knocked Out.
But I never reached the intrench-
ment myself. When we were almost
upon 1t, and I was grasping my rifle