Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-08-29
SOLDIERS IN BATTLE
How Men Feel and Act With
Death All About Them.
THE STORY OF A PRIVATE.

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 a veteran survivor to
Robert ShaclZleton appears in Har-
per's. 1t is, word for word, chapter
of history as seen by a man in the
ranks. Incidents which impressed him
are curious:
1--WE halted, and Tyrolese lying on
the ground cried out: L am dying.
Give me to drink Whereat my COM
panion stopped to offer him a flask,
and as he stopped the Tyrolese struck
savageIy at him with his bayonet, but
my companion jumped back, and it
missed him, and he said, You TyrO-
lese, you said you wanted a drink be-
fore you died, and now you shall die
without the drink And he stuck his
bayonet through him as a boy would
stick a pin through fly.
''The fighting soon began again, and
it was very fierce. 1t was soon that
we came to know that we were to cap
ture little village and the hills about
the village. The village was named
San Maritime, and there were walled
barns and gardens, and the Austrians
were very strong there.
'aThe bursting of the shells was very
bad. Sometimes all of us close by
would be thrown down and be COW
cred with mud and earth, but most of
as would jump M again, not wounded,
but always there were some who
would not jump up again, because they
were wounded or dead.
''At the beginning of battle a sol
der feels afraid. At the beginning of
this battle I felt afraid, and I know
that other men felt afraid, though it
was not our first battle, and we knew
what it was to be under fire.
$50 it was that at the beginning
we commended ourselves; we felt like
death, but soon that passed away, and
we thought no more Of death, but only
of the killing Of the Austrians.
Gall around me men were killed.
There were heads and arms blown off,
and men few into pieces like the
smashing of a jug. But we did not
care We thought nothing of it.
do not know that we even knew we
saw such things, but some Of them
come to me as sit with you and talk
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 off or be smashed into little
pieces like the breaking of a jug.
"Once, when we rushed over the big
guns and killed the men who still
fought with us, we turned the guns
to fire on the AustrianS as they flew
away, but they had driven bits of steel
into the touchholes, and so we could
not fire them. They were of cour-
age, those Austrians.
"Only once in all that battle did l
think much of what 1 saw or heard,
and that was when there was the
terrible screaming of a captain who
had his foot shot off. He twisted and
turned as he cried out and it was
very bad sound. But 1T is just as it
chances. 1 saw many men who were
many who were blown into little bits,
but 1 did not trouble about them. 1t
is just if it chances so.
''It is. very often that a man does
not know that he is hurt. / remember
that once there was a man near me
with a great hole in his forehead, but
he ran right on with us with his bay
onet, and thought, He will fall dead
But after that | saw him no more, for
there was always the fighting.
1.-THE storm and the blackness, they
made of us a great mixing Yes; it
was a very great tangling, for all lines
were lost, and know that sometimes
AustrianS struck at Austrians and
sometimes Italians struck at Italians,
for we were in a very great mixing
and very fierce in the blackness of that
storm.
1--WE were told to lie down and sleep.
So we lay down where we were, among
the dead and the wounded, among the
Italians and the AustrianS.
"And we slept. Yes; we were tired,
for we had fought hard for all that
long, long day, and on that hill that at
last we had gained we slept. and we
gave no heed TO the dead men or the
wounded.
"The wounded they made very great
cries, and there were men sent to go
among them with lights. Some were
surgeons, and some were men to carry
them to the field hospitals. But the
most of US we lay there and slept, and
we were very tired, and we knew that
with the morning there might be an
other fight"