The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-12-23
IzleCHASkD q RAZ/20AD UcK|FOP
n LIKE CRY

where In some condition still has left in him
spark OF the spirit Of life which moved him to
soldier deeds
Recently brigadier general of the regular
service, many years retired came to Washington.
An the lobby of hotel he met veteran as griz-
zleo ana wr1nkled as he. but still of an upright
physical bearing The general looked at the
man moment actually aghast and then with
words that came out in the disorder O. route
step" gasped:
John heard you were dead. would as soon
have thought Of meeting Clitz"
The two had been subalterns in Clitz's regi-
ment during the Civil war and after and had
loved him 1t was perhaps the flashing thought
Of anniversary of a disappearance at hand
that sent the returned soldiers thought to Major
Clitz when in the lobby of Washington hotel
he met the former comrade. who he had heard
was dead The army archives bear no stranger
records than that of this case of General Henry
B. Clitz-he was only major. however. when he
won distinction by his gallantry. 1t is twenty
three years ago now that Major Clitz was lost
Twenty-three years. but man may be found
after twenty-three years.
Major Henry B. Clitz. Twelfth infantry q. 8.
A., was once dead and buried and was alive again.
was lost and-the other word that should natur-
ally fit here is either yet to be supplied, or for
ever is to remain unwritten There are scores
of soldiers today. old soldiers-but once soldier
always a soldier-who. in the memory OF what
happened after Gaines Mills. think that one day
they may again clasp this side OF the grave the
hand of Comrade Clitz
Henry B. Clitz of Michigan entered West Point
in the year 1S41. graduating four years after
He was schoolmate of Grant. Mcclellan, Shert
dan and Burnside Clitz went into the Mexican
war and won praise on the field and brevet
rank afterward for conspicuous gallantry at Ger
ro Cordo Clitz was a fighter. He proved this
fact every time he had chance. and during his
forty-dve years of service he had chances IN
plenty.
When the Civil war had been on for time
Cltz found himself major of the Twelfth regu
lars. He was transferred to that outfit from the
Third another fighting regiment 1t came along
toward the time of Mechanicsvie and Gaines
Mills The Twelfth and the Fourteenth were ly-
ing pretty close together When the Gaines Mills
battle was on and wars hurricane was at Its
height the Twelfth and the Fourteenth were given
a position to hold The two regiments were at
tackled by overwhelming numbers. but the num-
beers weren't overwhelming for long time
There wasn't any retreat in the makeup OF those
two regiments of regular infantry The wave OF
battle simply had to come down on them and
engulf them Afterward when General Sykes
wrote a report about the Twelfth and Fourteenth
and the fight that they put up, he said the ranks
of the Twelfth were "decimated." General Sykes
had probably never studied English Lessons for
English People" Unless things have changed
decimated means the cutting out of one in ten
This is the way the Twelfth was "decimated." 1t
went into the fght with 40 men; came out with