The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-02-19
STORIES TO 9!HESS
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..ANDWAR -
EGROIC SPIRIT is DISPLAYED
Mombers Of the Thirteenth Massaehu.
setts Had te Be Forced Back in
Noted Fight at Gettysburg

George H. Lehman, employed as an
electrician at the Charlestown navy
yard. was sturdy young man of
twenty-one years, so years ago. Al
though he had seen hard service as a
private in Company +, Thirteenth
Massachusetts infantry, Mr.. Lehman
weighed 1870 pounds when he went
into the battle of Gettysburg. Mr..
Lehman had the advantage of knowl-
edge of how to take care of himself,
get enough to eat.
"On the night of June 80 we we're
at Emmetsburg, camped at Marsh
creek, IA miles from Gettysburg" said
Mr.. Lehman. About a. IL. on July
l we got orders to start for Gettys-
burg at double quick. We covered the
Ii miles at a dog-trot and it was the
toughest road | ever travelled, up and
down hill, with dust up to our ankles.
MY recollection Is that we reached
the line of battle at Gettysburg about
noon. The Twelfth Massachusetts had
been ahead Of us and they had been
through some hard fighting before we
arrived. They had lost many OF their
men and when we lined up In the po.
sition they had been holding the able
bodied men of the Twelfth staid with
us.
1T was hot work from the first min
ute. The rebels were coming up the
road in column of fours just as fast as
they could come. There seemed to
be a swarm of rebels stretching out
farther than we could see.
The boys all knew that there were
fully five of the Johnnies to every one
of us, but that only made our boys
fight harder. We were firing just as
fast as we could reload and aim. and
our men were falling fast
The rebels aimed at the men near
est the colors, so the men who were
about the colors were hit first. Our
company was stationed to the left OF
our colors and as rapidly as the men
near the colors were hit we moved up.
Our color bearer, brave Charlie Nor
ris, was killed Our regimental monu-
ment at Gettysburg, by the way. is a
soldier in full uniform, and the figure
was modelled after Morris.
so many of the color company had
been killed and wounded that our
company, the next one to the colors,
had moved up to the position about
hn taI oil 10
the colors when a bullet struck my
left leg. 1t was only flesh wound
and kept on fighting
About 23O or p. NJ. was wound
ed again, and this time the ball shat
tered a bone in the right leg That
put me out of action and l was or
dered to the rear to the field hospital
I had been able to bandage my right
leg with towel and stop the flow of
blood and | could just barely walk.
Before | was hit and was ordered
to the rear knew that we would have
to retreat. But the boys did not want
to retreat. When it was impossible to
hold the position longer and the Off
GERS ordered them to retreat the boys
had to be driven back before they
would stir In all my experience |
never saw such heroic spirit as the
men of the First corps showed that
first day at Gettysburg.
"As soon as Stuarts cavalry rode
away l told Kelly to run up the road
and intercept Bufords cavalry and
tell the general which way the rebels
had gone. He did so and pretty soon
we heard the Union cavalry in pursuit,
attacking Stuart's rear"
Mr.. Lehman on returning to Massa-
chusetts applied for commission in
the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts, infan-
try, but the examining surgeon de-
clared that his wound made further
service impossible.