Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-08-07

possession OF fhe entire island. Tbs
night before the evacuation my com
pany was assigned to picket duty, ana
from after dark until nearly dawn j
stood with three other men on pos
on the beach. All night the rebels wers
firing shells with unacustomed ae
dYity endeavoring to conceal THEN
preparations for evacuation. W,
would watch their shells as they went
up IN the air, leaving a tail OF fire be
hind them. and then note the angle Of
their fall. You could hear the con
tinua 'where-is-yer, where yer,
"where-is-yer," as the sound had be
come 10 be Familiarity CHARACTERIZED
and then when 1t would burst witt 81.
found-yer" we kept q keen lockout tt
see whether any OF the pieces wert
coming our way. No accident hap
pened, however. and just before day.
break we were pat into 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 so
the only injunction was that we should
not leave the parallel
About / o'clock 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 q and Lieut.. Webb OF Company
f. began TO XIII 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 were all laughing heartily
Whitworth battery call out johnson"
and we saw shell 20 up from that
fort ans burst In the air. We had ne
idea that we were in any danger, but
one of the pieces came our way, struck
Lieut.. Webb ia 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 Ia
the ground or course he was killed
INSTANTLY. but the sight he presented
was. | think, the most CHASTITY | evel
witnessed. | have seen meH who hay,
died under almost every condition, by
shot, by shell, by accident. by writing
pain and by conyulsion, and some hav,
had terribly distorted features during
the last paroXysms before life was fin
ally extinct, but have never seen any
thing which was quite So horrible a'
the sight presented by this officer oi
that occasion. The rigor mortls wa,
Instantaneous with the shot. and Their,
he sat bolt upright against the board
his mouth extended on broad grin
his eyes starting from their sockets an,
with no roof TO his head II was SOM
| minutes before we could collect Oh
senses sufficiently 10 lay the poor fel
low down and TO straighten him out, :,
that he would present the appearance
OF a decent corpse We couldn't taxi,
him away from there at that time bn
we managed 20 get blanket and pu
over him. and he lay there until afte
the evacuation was completed and For
Gregg and Battery Wagner we're 90
| cupled by our forces. This was onl,
n few hours afterward. for a little afte
noon they opened on us with their 60
horn mortars, pitching the shell RICH
over into our works bat without doinl
any particular damage. Before nigh
they had got away from the Island an.
we were In full possession. Frank r
Howe ia Washington star.