Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-02-26
Little Potter,

ter?" We do not know who wrote it,
but it has a pathos worthy of Dickens
| himself.
A short, little square-built, dark.
skinned, twtnkling- eyed young fellow
was known the regiment over as Lit
| tie Potter The name came from his
trade before war times and from the
fact that he was always talking shop.
Standing near the picket fire, though
uncomfortable himself, he could al
ways sugge.t a way in which to make
coffee boil, and would gather up little
splinters and pile under or about the
kettle with the keenest enjoyment, al
though the coffee belonged to the mos'
taciturn man in the company
AT Shiloh, in the midst Of the sec
ond days battle, Little Potter left the
! company to get water for himself and
several Of his companions A quick
change Of position, new line of bat
tie formation took place after his de-
parture, and Little Potter was seen
no more for several days
After the rebels retreated, he was
! acting as nurse at the brigade hospi-
| tai. He couldn't find his regiment on
| his return, but found the hospital,
and the division superintendent or
dered him on duty, and discovering
his excellence as nurse, would not
let him return to the company. There
was a quarrel between the captain
! 70 jorr
Little Potter as a skulker, and the lat
ter seeing him as useful man who
had made a mistake through no fault
Of his own.
The captain reported Potter absent
without leave, and he was court-mar-
tailed. The sentence was that he
| should forfeit six months pay The
stoppage of six months pay told
sorely on him, but he weathered the
storm and came out as serene as
though he had never been court-mar-
tailed
When the men gathered about the
fires, talked Of Shiloh, and compared
notes about their losses there on the
first day, Little Potter would say, in
a droll way: Il lost six months pay
there"
On the morning Of the terrible De
cember 81, at Stone River, Little Pot
ter was the first man in place, after
the orderly, and though the shortest
man in the company, he held his place
there. There was sweeping charge.
| no 1off fI1r fhnF
to the front than any other regiment
in action that day.
Little Potter was a giant In doing.
He kept his place next to the orderly
when the company was broken and
scattered. With a precision that
would under other circumstances have
been droll, he formed on the orderly
whenever a charge was made, and
while it was every man for himself.
AS he was ramming home load, a
ball struck him in the feshy part of
the leg, cutting a great cash and tear
ing his clothes. He was advised to go
to the rear. The reply was:
II will show them who Is a cow
ard"
shot struck him in the left shout
der, and he became deadly pale. Still
with teeth and right hand he man
aged to load his gun and fire. Anoth-
er shot struck him in the thigh and
| he fell. He was dragged to a stump
and placed so that the raking fire
would not touch him. He deliberately
! crawled round and placed himself SO
as to face the rebels, and as the com
| pany gave back in one Of those almost
| hand-to-hand fights, little Potter kissed
his hand to the men nearest him and
nestled down with sigh of relief.
Days afterwards the sergeant found
a., a pair of black eyes glistening from
the festoons of white sheets, in hos
| pital in Murfreesboro. They belonged
to Little Potter, broken-legged, brok-
charmed and bandaged. He could
not move and could hardly speak. But
as the fearful men bent over him, he
lisped: 1--WE wakthed them, didn't
we?'
He was taken to the hospital, and
here, day after day, went his old
comrades to see him.
They did more; they wrote to Gen.
Rosecrans, telling the simple story.
They carried the letter along the red
tape line, from brigade headquarters
to division from division to corps,
from corps to army headquarters, and
returned with an order from Rose
Grams himself, directing that the six
months pay be returned to Little Pot
ter, that all charges on record be
erased. and that an order compliment
ing his gallantry be read on dress pa
rade, and that copy be sent to the
man who behaved so nobly.
The order was read on dress pa
rade, and the document, with all it's
array of Endorsements and old Rosy's
letter was carried to Little Potter, by
men who could scarcely speak.
He seemed like one TRANSPORTED as
one of his old-time friends read and
re-read the order and letter. He had
L. 1o Ia