The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-11-28
BUSINESS OF KILLING
How Soldiers Feel While in the Heat
of Battle.

New York Tribune: 1t was young
stephen Crane, then a novice at writ
ing and without a killing TO his credit
who turned out THE Red Badge of
Courage" often rated the best de
seription of war and its emotions
that there is. His hero was a boy
fighting his first battle. Like most
beginners. the young soldier felt a
sneaking fear that when the first pep
pering began he would run like a rab-
bit. And all through the early hours
Of the day of trial he cursed and spat
and wabbled and did run back for a
while. But the moment came, at the
crucial point in the battle, when his
fears vanished. He forgot his or
ders. he forgot his officers, he forgot
himself. For an uncounted period Of
time he fought, blind and frenzied,
utterly regardless of danger or sense
or caution. The blood lust got to
him and he became a jungle animal.
How does this piece of literature
compare with the facts? Testimony
can be produced for and against it.
Undoubtedly the business of killing
affects different temperaments in
different ways. Yet, i'm the wealth of
letters home appearing in the Lon
don papers we have caught several
items which point to the stephen
Crane notion as q fairly normal ex-
perience. For instance. a British
cavalryman writes 10 his family thus:
Our planned retreat. all the while
keeping touch with the enemy. is,
believe, a wonderful piece OF work
on the part OF our generals. ! would
like to give you the details of our
charge, as recorded in the papers. but
must not. What | can say is that
we caught them in the open, in a
field OF stacked oats, charged them
twice and killed oyer 400 of them:
the remainder fled to the safety of
the woods. The sensation of killing
a man is not nice, but once done,
your blood grows hot. and you seem
to see all red and a passion un-
known in other moments possesses
you. We had five men killed and
many wounded, but IL was a glor-
ious time"
At this distance the experience de-
scribed may not appeal to III as con-
stituting "a glorious time" The
squeamish may find such an account
revolving. Yet it is obvious that un-
less such a spirit does control war
would be impossible. Here is a word
from Private T. Barrett OF the Royal
Berks:
THE last night | was there the re-
port went round that the enemy was
making an attack. We lay still un-
til they crossed the barbed wire en-
tanglement, and then we charged for
all we were worth. Talk about
fight? Why, we fought like demons.
We had all got the get at EN- fever. =
For further testimony as to the
spirit inhabiting men in action there
is the story of a Middlesex cavalry
man thus reported by a Manchester
Guardian correspondent:
my informant said that the Greys
crouched forward with their arms
straight out and swords extended,
forming a rigid line like a lance. |
asked IL the engagement split up in
groups like the melees at the military
tournament. He said no-they went
right through the uhlans except in
two or three cases. where the horses
got stuck together and two or three
men were slashing away at one an
other and then bursting free. He
saw two men whose horses were kill
ed laying about them like fury. 1t
was a living wonder how they were
not trampled to death. I don't know
how they did it, he said. but they
we're stark mad. They all go mad at
a charge like that. You'd see the
quserest things--like n OF the