Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-08-21
CHIEF MUSICIAN AS FIGHTER
Thrilling Account of Battle at Gettys.
burg Told by Member of 136th
New York Volunteers


which position I occupied in the One
Hundred and Thirty-Sixth New York
volunteer infantry at the battle OF
Gettysburg, were not very different
from those CT any other fighter in the
great test Of strength between north
and south. We went into position on
Cemetery hill as soon as We arrived
on the field. and made use of the stone
walls On either side of the Taneytown
road to protect US while we supported
the batteries on the hill.
AS viewpoint to observe the &C.
ton OF al sides OF the field we could
not have been more favorably placed
1t was as if We had been given the
best seats in a theater and the entire
action was going on before us on the
stage, writes DR.. r. B. fuller in the
Chicago Record Herald. The chief diff
ference was that we occasionally haC
to take a hand in the stage action,
and that the bullets that few from the
stage weren't stage bullets.
While We. as support of the batter,
les on Cemetery hill, were not, by
some fortune. in the fierce hand &c
hand lighting of that charge, we were
in the center of the most furious can
nonading of the fight, which was the
prelude to Lees advance on that fate
ful day. Cemetery hill was a point
Of concentration of our batteries, and
Of course Of the fire of the rebel guns
IN their. efforts to weaken our fighting
facilities. The shots from the enemy
and of our own guns passed over our
heads mainly. but when a rebel shot
or shell found the stone wall used by
us for protection, the havoc was some
times greatly multiplied by flying por-
tons Of stone. Many were so wound
ed
In the cemetery proper, used by
Gettysburg people for many years and
being well filed with headstones and
monuments marking the graves,
scarcely one stone was left unshat-
tered and thrown to earth long before
the end Of that day, If not the day be-
fore.
Our battery men and our own men
found themselves greatly annoyed as
soon as the enemy had possession of
the houses OF the town in our prox-
Unity by the well aimed shots of sharp
shooters firing from windows and 9TH
er cover.
Mainly they were engaged in pick
ing off the gunners. A weilplanted
sharpshooter capable of picking off
the gunners of a battery one at time,
usually taking advantage of the can
mons smoke after first picking out his
victim and making very sure aim, is
quite apt to unnerge battery men and
cause panic more than the crash and
destruction of the shots of the can
non of their opponents. When a man
feels that he is being aimed at per-
sonally and with little chance of miss
ing, it is apt to create a decidedly
panicky feeling.
Such being the state of affairs
among us and the batteries back of
us it was finally decided to bring a
large gun down into the road and blow
some of the houses occupied by the
sharpshooteTs TO pieces. The house
dlHiSO HL Was DIlCh- lie result OIL Luc
big gun shots was to open more ports
then before, for several shots only
knocked holes through about the size
Of big barrel heads. AS the sharp
shooting continued, shortly after noon
it was decided to select infantrymen
to rush those places, only few
yards distant. and capture the shoot
ers, Volunteers were sought to make
the rally and there were plenty.
They collected behind the barricade
that had been thrown up across the
road, and when all was ready at a
given signal they scaled the barricade
and rushed the brick house. Did they
capture the sharpshooters? No, not
one. 1t isn't the ethics of war. Some
FIVE corpses were laid out around that
house and when the boys returned the
sharpshooting at that point was at an
ond