Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-03-13

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In the bullet swept space, terrible
and impossible to traverse lay the bat
tie flag of the Delaware regiment Of
infantry. 1t had remained there a full
hour as it had fallen from the hands
OF the color sergeant who lay dead be-
side the huddled folds Of color. 1t was
the flag they had carried in dozen
pitched battles. Now and again blue
company started out from the corntield
at its back and cheering rushed for
ward; but Lees veterans knew how to
shoot and inevitably the line crumbled
to pieces and the survivors were whip
ped back into the sheltering corn.
The sacred colors would assuredly
have been disgraced by capture had it
not been for the daring bravery of a
private soldier Tanner who making a
desperate attempt to regain them sue
ceeded in doing what the whole regi-
ment had failed to accomplish.
1t happened at Antetam in the mid
die of the morning close by the famous
Sunken Road. Bloody Lane as this
rocky cash in the surface Of the pas
toral country is now called was at this
hour the scene of some of the most
fearful fighting of history. Regiments
lost all their higher officers, companies
fell to the command of sergeants and
cOrpOrals, the Union battle line was
broken in hundred places and all but
shattered by the deadly accurate mus
kerry of the gray soldiers. In the midst
| of the charging and slaughter the
struggle over those fallen colors took
place like an aside in the greater ira
gedy. Few knew exactly what was go
ing on; even the name of the hero
would easily have escaped remem-
brance If his colonel had not happened
| to be there to see it all to promote
Tanner on the spot for his gallantry
and to secure him the Medal of Honor
| (from the meager record of which in
the War Department this story comes
down to u.s..
Early on the morning of Sept II,
| 1868, Tanners regiment was astir, and
| Tanner, who was about twenty years
old, wandered a short distance to the
rear, where he could see the prepare
tons for the battle. The CLINT Of the
late summer sunshine on thousands of
rifle barrels, as immense masses of
troops moved across the wooded ridges
| down into the valley of the Antietam,
showed that the fighting wOC'd be on a
much larger scale. than any battle in
| which he had taken part.
Tanners heart throbbed the unique
excitement which springs solely from
| battle firing began to be felt by him !;
and when he heard in a few moments
| the shouts of his officers forming the
| men he FASTENED to his company and
| awaited with feverish Impotence the
command to march. 1t came at last,
and the regiment found itself moving
| in line of battle, forming the right of
| the brigade in the first line Of Sum-
ner's army corps. Fate had assigned
| them a position where the battle was
! about to rage with Uncomfortable fury.
They turned into an old dirt road
which led through the woods, at the
| edge of which they came out abruptly
on the tall Southern corn. Across this
| field they plunged. The drifting smoke
| hung over it; the steady roar of mus
kerry, the cheering and yells of the
! fighters, sounded about them but as
vet no bullets came, save feeble pat
| tering fire from the few Confederates
| they were driving back by their adj
vance. With a shout the foremost files
sprang into the clearing. which was
an open pasture. And then it burst
upon them!
The Confederate musket balls swish
ed through the battle line in ii murder
Gus hail, dropping the men with such
| terrible rapidity that those in front
turned to run back, pressing against
| their comrades in the rear, and throw
| ing the regiment into confusion.
"Close up, men, close up" shouted
the officers rushing hither and thither.
| "Charge!'' Their determination was
communicated to the men, who having
| straightened their front, sprang for
ward, dauntlessly facing that insuffer
able rolling destruction.
| Nevertheless, the Delaware regiment
kept on and on. With set jaws and
| whitened faces, giving no heed to their
comrades who fell wounded and dying
at every step, the soldiers fought their
way toward the line of leveled muskets.
The great gaps in their formation open
ed wider and wider. Seventy yards
from the cornfield-within thirty of the
Sunken Road-the survivors halted.
There they hung, wavering; and sud-
denly, as if the truth dawEed on each
man that the regiment was being cut to
pieces and they were destined simply
to be slain, they turned and ran for
their lives.
Half the regiment regained the corn
field: the rest were left on the bloody
slope between the hostile armies. Out
of ten company commanders, eight had