The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-02-03
The Pity Of 1t
By M. QUAD
Copyright, 1916. by tho Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate
BY Nj. QUAD

"Herem as the sergeant called the 70
on the morning we awoke beside III
Potomac. There was an even hundre
rs we marched away--as we took ou
first turn at plcket-as we first slghte
the enemy, as we went into battle 70
the first time. After the roar of gun
had died away and the dead had bee
buried, only eighty-nine men answers
"Herew to the sergeant's roll call ii
the morning.
A few weeks went by. and we stoo'
shoulder TO shoulder In battle lint
again, and when the sergeant called
the roll, now only seventy-eight mel
answered Here"
Then came Cold Harbor and the fall
ing back to Malvern hill Cannon
doomed and musketry cracked all day
long and far into the night Wounded
men cursed and groaned as they limp
ed away or fell helpless-men pitched
forward with but single cry and
died with their faces hidden in the
weeds and grass. After Malvern Hill
the sergeant called the roll again-not
the same sergeant as before. for he
was lying dead in the thickets at Fair
0aks-and this time only fifty-two men
answered "Herer'
And so could you wonder that when
recruits came down TO us we looked
upon them as intruders, even though
they were good men and true, and
had come to help US win victories?
Their names were called with ours,
and we heard them answer "Herew
But they were only with us; they
could not be of us. They had come
too late.
And at last came Appomattox and
the surrender and then peace and the
return to Washington. We were al
most full company again as we turn
ed out-on the meadows of Arlington
for the last roll call. Upward of sew.
enty living men could have answered
here" to their names.
Fall in, company G. Attention to
roll callr'
1t was not the sergeant who had
Cdlleu Inc IOli AFTER IItdeIlthhDulb
after Charlottesville, after Gettys
burg 1t was a new man-one who had
been promoted before his cheeks ha0
scarcely been burned by the southern
sun. But he had heard of the ties
which bound the old veterans together
he realized what this last roll call
meant to the survivors. And from the !
musty archives of the past he took the
roll of the dead and called:
"Anson, Armstrong, Armitage" No
one replied.
Berry, Bloomingdale, Benson. Bar
ston, Benham." No one replied.
Cary, Carter, Carnahan, Cummings
Comstockn No one replied.
And so he called, and so the silence
IF the death roll grew deeper. :
Young, Yeomans, Yager!' No one
'eplied.
York;
"Herew
And so he of all was the sole surviv'
", the last living man of company G
he only one who had right to stand
here In that line and answer to the
asst roll call. The others-ninety and
line-were crippled at home or sleep
ng their last sleep on the hillsides, In
he valleys, In the forests and the
tickets of Virginia
The line cheered him as he stood
part, the last survivor of glorious
,and which had fought in dozen bat
les, but he turned his head away and
yept.
Perhaps no act of war engendered
more bitterness than the burning OF
be barns and houses in the Shenan'
oah valley under Sheridans official
rider.
No warning was given unless the
reat clouds of smoke rising up here
nd there to signify destruction were
AIKEN as warnings of what was to
ONE. A squad of men galloped up,
be women and children were told the
ubstance OF the order, and the match
yas applied. An hour later they sat
n the grass houseless and homeless
pine of them naked and dumb In ter
Or. There we're tears and prayers
nd pleadings, but the order had gone
nth.
By and by, as we rode up to a quaint
d farmhouse, half hidden among the !
'uit trees, rifle cracked and a troop /
:, shot through the head, fell off his !
)rse. The black pillars of smoke dot !
ng the valley had told the people
hat was coming. Here was one de
rmined to protect his property-one
an 'gainst company after company
ding up and down and across. Ten
inutes later the barn and the stacks :
ere on fire and men under cover were :,
,eping up a hot fire on the rife pit =,
Ist as another squad, attracted by :
e firing. came up second man was ;,
{ and grievously wounded. /
There was no more firing from the =
t. Some of the scores of bullets !,
ed into it must have found target :
here was a rush from all sides and \
e pit was captured. Fifty men had n
ptured one. And that one? 1t was I.
lad not day over fourteen. and one n
our carbine bullets had taken his n
e. And when we laid him on the O
ass and saw that he had come home a
FUNDED from some battle up the val "
when the mother came out TO US =
IN the house and fell on her knees ST
d walled and sobbed-when an old
lite haired grandfather stood in the
or bpinfaSe 70 cnme ont and look