Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-09-10
SOLDIERS IN Bat TIE

alDlERS IN BAT Tie
How Men Feel and Act With
Death All About Them.
THE STORY OF A PRIVATE.
With the Beginning Of the Fight
Comes Fear but That Soon Passes
Away In the Eagerness For Killing.
Varying Effects Of Wounds.
A narrative Of the battle of Solferi-
no as told by q veteran survivor to
Robert ackleton appears In ] Har-
per's.! II; is. word for word, chapter
of history as seen by q man in tho
ranks. Incidents which impressed him
are curious: e 8 ss2i
1--WE halted, and a Tyrolese lying Oh
the ground cried out: 4 am dying.
Give me to drink Whereat my com.
panion stopped to offer him a flask,
and as he stopped the Tyrolese struck
sayagely at him with his bayonet, but
| my companion jumped back, and 1t
missed him. and he said, 'You Tyro-
lese, you said you wanted drink be-
fore you died, and now you shall die
without, the drink And he stuck hfs
'bayonet through him as boy would
stick a pin through a fly. szft:
! 1.-THE fighting soon began again, and
| it was very fierce. 1t was soon that
we came to know that we were to cap
ture a. little village and the hills about
the village. The village was named
| San Maritime, and there were walled
barns and gardens, and the Austrians
We're very strong there. ,Ez sss
The bursting Of the shells was very
| bad Sometimes all of us close by
would he thrown down and be COW
cred with mud and earth, but most OF
us would jump up again, not wounded,
but always there were some who
would not jump up again, because they
were wounded or dead. VI M
"At the beginning Of battle a sol
der feels afraid. At the beginning Of
4 this battle felt afraid, and know
that other men felt afraid. though 1t
was not our first battle. and we knew
what it was to be under fire. $asd
~ $50 1t was that at the beginning
i we commended ourselves; we felt like
7nofh ,s,f = rsat M, ce,, n a xr,o =, ~, a
we thought no more Of death. but only
OF the killing of the Austrians. It
E}"All around me men were killed.
There were heads and arms blown of,
and men flew into pieces like the
smashing of a jug. But we did not
care. II We thought nothing of It. al
do not know that we even knew we
saw such things. but some of them
come to me as / sit with you and tall
| OF that long day. We did not notice
and we did not think that at any mo
ment we too might have our, heads
blown of or be smashed into little
pieces like the breaking Of a jug. 81
i "Once, when we rushed over the bis
guns and killed the men who still
fought with us, we turned the guns
to fire on the Austrians as they few
away. but they had driven bits Of stee
into the touchholes, and SO we could
not fire them. They were Of cour
age, those Austrians. sssgy -1rn
| e""Only once In all that battle, did i
think much OF what, I. saw or heard
and that was when there was tbs
terrible screaming Of q captain who
had his foot shot OFF. He twisted and
turned as he cried ont, and it was 3
very, bad sound. a But It is just as L
chances. i saw many men who were
hurst worse than that captain an6
many who were blown into little bits
but / did not trouble about them. Il
is just If it chances SO. @.s4 .r..x
SIT Is very often that man does
not know that he Is hurt. remembel
that once there was man near me-
with q great hole In his forehead, blu,
he ran right on with US with his bay
onet, and thought, He will fall dead.
But after that saw him no more. fol
there was always the fighting.
4 "The storm and the blackness, they
made of us a great mixing. Yes; Il
was a very great tangling. for all lines
were lost, and know that sometimes
i Austrians struck at Austrians anG
sometimes Italians struck at Italians
for we Were In very great mixing
and very fierce in the blackness Of tina
storm. IS
I'VE we're told to lie down and sleep
So we lay down where we were. among
the dead and the Wounded, among th,
Italians aud the Austrians.
"And we slept. Yes: we were tired
for we had fought hard for all tina
long. long day, and on that hill that a
last we had gained we slept, and w
gave no heed to the dead men or tn,
wounded
The wounded they made very grea
cries. and there were men sent to g
among them with lights. Some wer,
surgeons. and some were men TO carr.
them to the field hospitals. But tn,
Il