Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-04-26
Continued from last week.

General Smith received orders to
charge the works in his front, and
he selected Lauman's brigade to
lead. 1t was a forlorn hope for
Colonel Shaw of the Fourteenth
Iowa, told me that General Smith had
no thought of carrying the works; i;
it was designed on the part of Grant
only as a feint till the right could
be reinvested. But something must
be done and that right quick, so
General Smith said to Colonel Tut
. tie: You are to assail yonder rife
N pits, can / depend on you?" Sup
B port me promptly General" said Tut
tile, ''and in twenty minutes I'll go
in" Twenty minutes was the exact
Eime it took Marshall Soult to climb
the Pratzen slope at Austerlitz and
Etiercely fight the column of Kallo-
lrath. Twenty minutes, the destin-
Ekes of Kingdoms and empires have
been decided in less time than that.
Twenty minutes at Waterloo meant
everything to Wellington. Twenty
minutes in mans lifetime may not
mean much, but twenty minutes on
the field of battle means everything.
Well, the column is ready, the line
is formed at considerable distance
from the rifle pits, the Second Iowa
is in front, divided into two equal
parts, the left five companies lead
ing, the right wing following one
hundred and fifty yards behind, then
comes the Fifty-second Indiana, the
Twenty-fifth Indiana and the Four
teenth and Seventh Iowa, while
Birge's sharpshooters are deployed
on our tanks as skirmishers and
y right well they did the business, ev-
cry man of them was a preferred
Nmarksman; they had learned how to
N draw a bead on the prairies and in
the woods of the wild and woody
west, they knew just how to bark a
squirrel, which required fine marks
manship. They were armed with
long, globe sighted Henry rifles, and
dressed in clothes neither blue nor
gray, nor butternut exactly, but a
! kind of mixture between them all,
so they were not easily distinguish
ed from surrounding objects. They
4 all wore coon skin caps with the
/ down behind. They never maneu-
vered as a corps, though some OF
4 them figured as corpse; every man
fought on his own hook, when the
4 time for action came it was Can
4 teens full, biscuits for all day, all
right, hunt your holes,'' and away
they went like so many Indians.
4 They hid behind rocks and stumps,
4 they crawled into hollows, they
4 climbed into trees and stretched
4 themselves out along the limbs, and
hin that way they did us some royal
! fservice, for they made it very in
teresting for the men that worked
n the batteries, On the other side.
u Gen. Smith leads the column out
4 to a point where it debouches in full
view of the enemy and in easy
frange of his musketry; yonder are
lthe rebel works full five hundred
yards away. There is a deep ditch
fon the inside, on the outside of II
the works are thrown up forming
IAN embankment, behind which the
Jdefence conceals himself while he
ishoots at the prosecution. There are
topenings in the earth works, through
(which the artillery pours its grape
land canister and shot and she'll ant
n lell. All the hillside is covered will
q he abattis already referred to, 81
ASdense that rabbit would be both
Aered to get through 1t. The line i
Eformed, the officers draw thei
Hswords, the men grasp their mus
kets with firmer grip.