Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-27
MEN THROWN OFF;
FIVE BADLY HURT
Reds Pour Shot and Shell Into the
Blue Army.
SEVERAL OVERCOME BY HEAT
Long "Hikes" Across Rough Fields
Under the Burning Sun Prove
Exhausting - Problems
for Officers

Special From a Staff Correspondent
GETTYSBURG, Pa, July 27.-Rushins
down hill with the thunderous roar of a
full battery of artillery gathering behind
them, six horses attached to one of the
guns of the Sd United States Artillery
stampeded during the afternoon battle
yesterday, and only by the rarest driving
on the part Of other batterymen was d
most disastrous accident averted.
AS it was, one of the horses of the bat.
terry was injured about the head and face
and bones were crushed in. Men of the
battery were thrown right and left. and
last night five of them were in the hos
pital, with all manner of cuts and abra-
sions.
The stampede occurred just after the
Red artillery had opened fire on the Blue
Reds guns were rapidly putting the
Blues out of business. The Blues COM
mander ordered a change of position to
get away from the deadly rain Of shells
that were dropped with unerring but
entirely imaginative accuracy. The large
number of horses, men, guns and caissons
were jerked up short and sharp. With
six horses to a gun, three men riding
them and two men on the guns, and with
nire separate sets of guns and caissOns,
the great field was filled with a mass
Of circling, wheeling, shouting and ours
ing drivers and gunners. There was lit
tie time to be lost. The Reds guns were
booming away from an unshakable posi-
ton, sheltered by hill. and the Blue 8
discriminating defense had to do some
thing, SO the battery ran at full speed.
Men and Horses in tumble.
Suddenly in the confusion a horse did
the wrong thing, and as the big wheels
rumbled roughly over the cross-grained
plow burrows of the field there was a
mass curled up, men. horses and gun, as
if giant had crumpled up a sheet Of
paper and bowled it along the field
That was all. IT was. as far as looks
went, real war. No one stopped to say
how sorry they were. No one but one
officer, whose life might have depended
on getting the gun along, stopped to
help. The battery was ordered away
quickly. and quickly it had to go. The
badly injured horse and the injured men
finally got untansled. and scarcely any
report was made of it, except the send
ing for an expert veterinarian who hap
pened to be in camp. The injured men
are Walter Lamark, Ed Rogers, Joseph
Start, Jartes Cassidy and F. T. Smith.
That was not the only accident of the
day, but it was by far the most i'm
portant and the most thrilling. The
others were individual cases of exhaus-
ton. There were young boys who drag
ged into camp after the fight and after
the long hike. eight long miles in sun
so hot that it seemed to have cutting
knives in it's rays, and in dust so thick
that the throat seemed to bleed and be
raw when the men gaSped for the fresh
air that was nowhere to be found. In
this kind of thing young fellows grew
sick and faint and dragged along, hoping
and praying that they could get to a
cool spot on the side of the road and lie
there the rest of the day.
Long "Hikes' Tiresome.
Some of the men had had long
hike" at double quick time from one
an upward slope. where wheat had been
recently cut. leaving stiff stubbles to
make running so unpleasant, running
with heavy army shoes. with a canteen
fapping and rife in the hand and
overhead sun that seemed to laugh
in superheated glee at the mortals un-
derneath that were playing a game so
old that no one knows when it began
and only the sun will see the end
In q 4
To some Of the men who carry a rifle,
for which glorious feat they are paid
about so cents a day, with the priv
ilege of getting shot, the problem had
up they talked of fianks and untenable
positions. and the enemy's right being
ungarded. But it was mostly talk by
men on horseback who sent orders
And in the evening the men that were
hit the hardest began to look it. One
man dropped unconscious in company
street. Another one dropped by his tent
door. Two men went to the hospital. In
the West Virginia outfits. where many
very young boys are enlisted troops
seemed to have been steamed and run
through with a wringer. But there was
not a complaint to be heard. They all
seemed, satisfied that they were doing the
thing that makes soldiers.
May Be Last Maneuver Camp.
There is every possibility that when the
National Guard of the District says good
bye to Gettysburg 1t will leave behind it
the last big maneuver camp of the kind
A smaller and more practical camp for
next year is the wish of nearly every
one connected with the District organiza-
ton. The belief is expressed that this
camp Of instruction is a fine thing for
officers and a poor thing for enlisted
men. The work of the men includes SO
much "hiking OUT across the dustiest of
roads that that portion of 1t looms up
big and broad in the minds Of the guards
men, and the real task of learning the
elements of the soldiers life seems to
take up little OF their time.
However. the guard Is assigned to
camps by the War Department. The men
cannot elect their camp sites. and the
brigade officers cannot lead the regiments
to any camp they may choose. At the