Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-26


days out at the home. superintendlng
the room where all the old war relics
are kept. Joseph Mas was a sergeant
in the Unon army. and came from DaAota
to join what was sometimes caieo the
Army of the West.
THE battle that / remember most dis
tinctly" said Mr.. Mas. was that or Shl-
loh We heard that Gen. Grant was n8ht-
ing and needed reinforcements. the or
, der was given that our regiment was TO
march Immediately to his aid. 1t was
long distance and we arrived at ) o clock
in the morning. The battle was raging.
and we were badly needed. We jumped
into it and fought until ; O'Clock the nett
day.
we had one exciting day in camp that
I remember For almost a week a man
whom no one knew. but who acted like a
lunatic, had been with US doing odd jobs
about camp. He sang all the time and
mumbIed and laughed to himself and ap-
parently pad little attention to the war
under suspicion at that time and orders
We're to keep an eye on him. The result
was that he was caught sneaking along
the outskirts of the camp. and when he
was searched we found a map of the
camp and a great deal of information
that would have been valuable to the
rebels"
With a record of forty-three battles and
hardly a scar William II. Anderson is
living now at Soldiers Home and is COM
mander of the G. A. r. post there. Me-
mortal day brings to his mind many
events of the war, for he witnessed many
battles from the beginning of the war to
the surrender
II can never forget the battle of Antie-
TAM he said, reminiscently. Our COM
pany was among the first to charge the
bridge that crosses the creek there and
thus have a chance at the rebels. They
were up on the hill. and when we had
crossed we We're out of target range
They were too high to pick US off easily,
while we sent volley after yolley into
them. until they were forced to retreat.
We fought for day, and l saw more
bloodshed than ever before during that
length of time. Bloody Lane certainly
deserved its name. for the men lay in
heaps They were wrapped in blankets
and laid side by side in ditch that was
almost city block in length.
Gen. Lee raised the flag of truce and
asked for time to bury his dead During
the night he slipped away and left us the
field.
81 fought in the battle of Gettysburg
and in fact through most of the large
ones. I was detailed from my regiment
in the artillery to headquarters and under
Gen. Wesley Merritt l carried headquar-
tiers flag on many battlefields Twice the
Flagstaff was shattered in my hand. At
the surrender I was stationed just about
fifty yards from the generals and
could plainly see the whole ceremony.
The Confederate troops marched up and
stacked their guns and their colors and
then went back to their places. 1t was not
giving up the guns that they minded. but
the surrendering of their Confederate
flag and the colors that they had carried
through the war. When we left the field
the old apple tree under which the gen.
erals stood was hacked to pieces. Every
one wanted a piece as a souvenir and for
years l kept the little twig 4 broke off.
''Rut the war meant hard times and
man didn't get many square meals dur
ing those years. A piece of picked pork
between two hard crackers sometimes
had to last for the day. Sometimes.
though, we'd come across a stack OF pro-
visions and then ii meant good food for
a time at any rate. The general took
up headquarters one night in an old
farmhouse and the men nearly went
crazy when they saw the hundred tur-
keys that We're running around the yard.
But the general gave orders that no one
was to touch them and he put a guard
near the trees where they were roosting.
About IL that night / heard a voice