The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1916-06-08
The Degeneracy
of Modem Var
BY Captain F. A. Mitchell

LuuL up dSd1IlSl lluC VI uSuS ucS Oc.
Tended by rapid fire guns. electric
wires and grenades; 10000 or 10000
of them are either killed or wounded,
| while the rest capture few yards Of
territory or are driven back without
having accomplished anything. You
might as well extract romance from
| the Chicago stockyards on killing day"
The remark was made to party Of
men sitting on chairs tilted against the
outside of country store.
"Where's the romance in the war
you fit in?" asked an old farmer, TAX
ing his pipe out Of his mouth and look
ing at the G. A. r. man doubtfully.
"Whar is it? Why. that war was
/ brimful of it. 1t was spread over a
big country: there were comparatively
| few battles: small amount of takin'
| Notifications and all the rest was ro-
nance. l don't mean girl romance,
though there was plenty of that.
mean adventure romance. | was con-
cerned in one Of 'em myself. We was
| layin' quiet in camp, down In Tennes-
see, one summers evening, singin'.
| When this cruel war is over or 'Lo-
rena' or some other of the romantic
war songs Of that time, when my cap
tain came along in a hurry, shoutin',
| Any locomotive engineer among you
! boys?' | said I'd been fireman on
| locomotive and could run a machine
| toi'ablc well. He yankcd me off to the
| general who asked me a few questions.
then told me that the bridge guard
| across the Tennessee river. twenty
miles above us. had been attacked and
unless he could get re-enforcements
there right off the bridge would be
taken and burned. This would break
our line Of communications and we
might have to give,u a big stretch OF
country we occupied. He wanted an
engineer TO take a regiment through to
the rescue The officer commanding
the guard had telegraphed that he
the wire was cut
The train was made up and 400
men were hurrying into the cars. A
locomotive was being fired up. and |
jumped aboard and took the throttle.
We'll. now, mebbe there was nOthin
adventurous in that ride! The colonel
commanding the regiment and the ad-
jutant were in the cab with me. and
it wasn't long before they were made
aware of the fact that we were run
ming a gantlet. It was the people
along the road who were trying to
wreck us that made 1t amusing.
Rounding curve. l saw about half
the length of the train ahead tie
wedged in under the rail. 1t was too
late to stop. but l reversed and wait
ed. There was a thump. but the en-
CINE stuck to the track There were
seven out Of ten chances that we would
have been ditched and most Of us in
the cab killed or manned.
The next amusing occurrence was
the rattle of bullets against the cab.
Nobody was hurt, but you'd better be-
lieve every man ducked. not excepting
the colonel
But they didn't get the excitement
out Of it that did. was straining
my eyes into the darkness ahead with
my hand on the throttle. expecting
every minute to run up against an OBJ
struction. The shadow Of tree was
a log felled across the track; the shad-
ow Of q stump was tie on the rails.
And sometimes the distractions were
real Once l pulled up within a few
feet of a log that had been rolled
square across the rails. Another time
I slowed up before reaching a switch
and found that it had been left open
to run us up against a brick house.
You see, If they hadn't really been
tryin' to wreck us there wouldn't a
been any excitement.
"And if there hadn't been any neces-
sity OF goin' at rapid gait there
wouldn't "a been any fun neither. II
we didn't get there in time to save the
bridge it meant the retreat Of the
whole army So you see l was obliged
to let her out. danger or no danger,
for If didn't we wouldn't be in time.
and we might as we'll be wrecked as
too late Besides. if I'd wanted to go
slow the colonel, who was at my e.
bow, wouldn't have allowed it.
"The last obstruction was post put
up on end as cattle guard only a
few miles from the bridge Seeing
that couldn't stop in time. l put on
steam and snapped it off like twig.
After passing this we heard firing
and knew that the bridge was not yet
lost. blew long blast on the whis-
tie and heard distant cheer. When
we came near the bridge the colonel
ordered noe to stop the train in cut.
The men got out and, forming on one
side of the cut on high ground. charg-
ed down on the attacking force and
drove them of.
Now. that's what call the romance
Of war-the adventurous romance.
When l got back to camp the general
sent for me. and thought he was 60
ing to hug me. never saw man
look so tckled in my life. I'd saved
hundreds Of square miles Of territory.
What chance has any soldier to do
anything like that in this big Euro
pean slaughter business: don't
blame fellows for not volunteering in