Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-07-23
Civil War Stories
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Nj urlrneShnrA.

M~urfreesboro.
Stone River, of all the engagements
of the late war in which | was a var
tlclpant, strikes me as the most singu-
lar IN more respects han one. There
We're one or W circumstances con
nected with and Immediately proceed
ing the battle which have ever been to
me a mysterious puzzle, and which I
never could account for except upon
the hypothesis hat the commander Of
the Federal right was a laundering in
competent, and went to sleep at a
time when he should have been on the
alert.
Hardee's corps Go which my regi-
ment, the First Arkansas, was attach
ed, on the Goth of December, 1862, oc-
cupied a position on the extreme right
OF the Confederate army. Bragg. on
that day, came 70 The determination
to deliver battle on the following norm
Ing, and fixed on Hardee's corps as the
force WhicL should bring on the en-
gagement. In pursuance of hat plan
We were transferred. on the evening
or tPe 3Uth, to the extreme left OF
the army. 1t was past midnight be-
fore the movement was fully accom-
plished. We ~bivouacked in the open
fields, less than half a mile from the
Federal line. The night was frosty
and crisp, and we built great fires of
dry fence rails. There was over a mile
Of those bright. blazing fires. They H.
Illuminated the whole country for a
great distance, and the glare was re-
Elected high up in the heavens. On
the morning of the 2lst, just as the
hrst faint streaks of dawn began to
show themselves above the eastern
horizon, the r~eveille was sounded, and
the men fell into line like puppets,
moved by a common spring. AS far
as the eye could reach to the right and
to the left there stretched an unbroken
line of glittering b~ayonets. In front
OF us, at the distance af about 500
yards, was a high rail fence, stretching
across the bare and level stubble-fields
for probably a mile. Just beyond this
fence, and skirting it for its entire
length, doomed up a dense cedar forest.
Nestled amid these woods. apparently
little dreaming of the close proximity
OF an enemy, were the Federal hosts,
and there was probably not a man Of
the Confederate forces but expected
that we would in a few minutes be en-
gagged in deadly strife with these hosts.
At about the hour the sunbeams be
gan TO CLINT the tops of the tallest
trees, the skirmish line was thrown
forward, and Immediately following
the whole Confederate line was in mo-
ton. When the worm fence was reach
ed 1t went down before the solid hui
wall with a crash, as if smote by
the wand Of a magician. Not until
this point was reached did the Skin
fire a shot. There a few
pickets were encountered, and proba-
Ny not more than fifty shots were
dred before we were in the very midst
OF the Federal camp. In advance of
us the woods were full of the enemy,
fleeing In disorder. The pursuit was
kept up for three miles, and but for
the intrepid and c~ool-headed Phil Sher-
fdan the day would probably have wit
messed the most disastrous defeat the
arms sustained in the sanguin-
airy four years war. Every student of
war history knows how the gallant
Phil brought order out Of chaos, check
ed the onset Of Hardee's corps, and
saved the day.
Now, the mysterious and unaccount-
able feature of that episode is, why
did the Federal force on the right al
low a large army to plant itself i'm
,nediately in their front, within rifle
shot, build bright fires that could be
for miles, bivouac there unmo-
Tested all night, fall into line the next
morning, advance upon them in battle
array, capture their camp and baggage.
and put them to flight without their
Offering SO much resistance as the fir
ing Of a single gun? This question
has time and again presented itself to
my mind, and the more I think of 1t
the more difficult to answer il becomes.
Traveller.