The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-25

sion. was a participant in the
civaI war from first TO last, and
later was Sheriff Of Kings county.
He was forty times under fire
and four times wounded From
his store of experience he makes
comparison of the battlefield psy-
choIogy of half century ago
and the present time.
TROM vollcy sheet of flame came
r. two bullets destined for Private
James Ovcrton as he charged
up CUPS Hill with his Confcd-
crate comrades shortly after midnight
ON July 3, 1868. one lump of lead
pierced his throat and another his
breast, close to the heart.
The gray soldier WINGED with the
shock. tottcred two or three seconds
and then tremblingly sank First to
one knee he went. vainly using his gun
as "A supporting stan to regain his feet,
and ,hcn to his elbow. finally falling to
earth. lie had checked his forward
tendency as he fell, twisting about SO
that now his back was next the ground,
and his startled and apprehcnsve gaze
turned upward to the night gloom.
He felt a salty taste in his mouth and
a twitchlng sting at his neck. There
was a numb feeling in his chest as If
Ice had been placed on the bare skin.
He had sense of curious certainty
that this numhncss covered the space
OF silver dollar-that was the way he
mentally measured it, and the picture
of silver dollar lying ON his un-
covered chest was in his mind.
suddenly, in simultaneous movement.
he placed one hand 10 his throat and
one to his breast He felt sticky
trckling wet at both spots. lie placed
both hands close to his eyes a. II toI
prove their color in the pitch dark
Then his mouth began to MI with VIVA.
he knew now was blood. He tried tot
turn over So that he might spit !, OUT
but the weight Of tons seemed on him
and all he could do was to shift his
head SO that he blood might triCkle
down his cheek and ease the threatened
choking.
backward and forward over his pros
trate form trampled yelling. cursn".
crying moaning men. Gun stocks were
damned in his face unwittingly. Heavy
booted men and bare footed men stepped
on his head. his neck, his chest, his
abdomen and his legs and arms.
with his tongue ne feehly felt the
broken teeth. He was no more. no
better than piece Of SOIL and the
battling men savagely took more adj
vantageou. foothold on him as they
needed /: in heir painting PUSHES.
The wounded man resigned himself
to death on The midnight battlefield,
praying only that he might not linger.
He was all through the turmoil and
struggle of life, thank God, and he felt
no mental pang. Suddenly in the midst
Of the flashes and the musket reports,
a hoarse voice sounded. an officers:
Keep covered when You fire, keep
covered They aim at your flashes
Burrow down Ill you charge"
Suddenly hands lifted him by the
head and feet and threw him across
space just as If he had been sack IT
flour. He dropped on somothlng-it
was too yielding for earth-and as he
struck he heard beneath him means
and walls He knew the truth, he was
one Of a pile of human beings, or
humans no longer with being, who were
10 he used as breastworks. He had
fallen on rho top layer. In another
moment a gun barrel was laid across his
breast and its owner, sheltered behind
his comrade dead. began to blaze away
at the Federal enemy.
James Overton didn't die for twenty
I'VE years after that night of terrific
suffering. He lived to attend reunion
on the same Cups Hill Of Gettysburg
battlefield, where he came upon Col
Lewis Il. Stcgman, who had COM
manded the Northern troops who had
peppered him and later those who had
used him as breastwOrk To his old
foe ne told the story of his thoughts,
his hopes, his fears and his wound
agony.
In vivid detail he described how he
had been struck how he had struggled
to keep his feet, but weak and CULVER
ing with pain and shock had fallen
and been tramplod upon until counted
as useful dead material for a human
breastworl and lifted into prominent
place of Grcwsume service. This is his
story as it dovetalls into the events re-
corded in the Stcgman diary of that
July night:
AS soon as l was pitched on the pile
Of dead and wounded men that were to
serve as hreastworks for our boys my
chest was used as gun barrel rest by
one of my comrades. lie laid the long
tube of ,he weapon across me, four or
five inches below my chin, and he loaded
and fired at least once a minute. |
felt each kick of the musket as 1t re-
coiled from its discharge,
1.-THE Confederate soldier shooting
was a deliberate fellow. He waited be-
fore he shot for Federal mark. This
was indicated 10y the blaze of an
enemy's gun barely fifty yards away
| knew this, because as | lay my face
was toward the enemy and | could DIS
Germ through the darkness the flashes
betokening their fire,
The human brcastworks extended
through the woods Of the hill for several
hundred feet. ! could make this out
as our men fired the blazes revealing
the dark line behind which they shot
We had had no time to dig breastworks
because all our fighting had been n
charge up the hill, until we were held
to the present standstil by the Yankees
TO the right and left OF the soldier who
was using my chest as a rest We're
scores Of his comrades firing away at
the Federal line; now and then there
would bee an exclamation that | took To-
denote hit.