Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-06-14

the Importance OF the crisis, too, and
grim contest followed. Sixty-four
rounds of shot and shell did Van Pelt
pour into the charging ranks. Arkan-
sas and Mississippians fell like grain
before the reaper, but the rush of
their yelling columns could only be
checked temporarily. The momentum
of the attack was too great, and be-
sides, another confederate force APP
peared in Scribner's rear. The gal
liant brigadier, all but caught in a
trap, made the best of bad situa-
ton and cut his way out with what
he could of his brigade. In this short
fight he had lost 20 per cent of his
900 men.
But the battery could not retreat.
Fifty-five of its 100 horses had been
killed; % men were dead or disabled.
Van Pelt stood almost alone by his be-
loved cannon as the charging lines
reached the position.
He might have saved his life then,
had he chosen to go. But Van Pelt
felt about those guns as old-fashioned
sea-captains did about their vessels in
time of shipwrecks. He preferred to
die rather than to leave them behind
him. Doubtless his thoughts recur-
red to the proud record the battery
had made under Loomis, and we can
imagine that he may have said to him.
self: what will Michigan say of me
if | lose them in my first battle?"
At any rate, as Mississippi and Ar
kansas surged up, cheering, bayonets
a-glisten, the young lieutenant drew
his sword, stationed himself in front
of the now silent guns, and in, his
despair cried out. 'Don't dare to
touch theml" Cambronne in the last
square at WATERLOO was not one whit
greater than this. just how he died
we do not know, but he fell, and the
exultant confederates seized the can
non which had on that and other bat
tlefields laid so many of their COM
rades low.
One of the six, to be sure, escaped
capture and the ignominy of being
turned against it former owners. This
one was saved by Lieut.. A. III. Bach
man, being dragged off by hand, with
almost superhuman evertion, and in
spite of the fierce-pressing pursuit of
Liddell's men. So imbued was the
crew of this gun with Van Pelt's spir-
it and attachment to the guns that
they would not even leave their
sponge-bucket behind. one of the men
risking his life to go back and bring
it off the field.
Though that day practically marked
the end of the First Michigan's SER
vice at the actual front, its guns were
not for long to be used against the
federal army. The same day, Lid
dell's division, taken i'm flank much as
it had taken Scribner, was compelled
to leave behind three of the five
pieces it had taken. Later, at Mis-
sionarysRidge, another was recovered,
and when Sherman captured Atlanta,
the sixth was taken back The bat
terry remained in Chattanooga to the
end of the war, and its six grim cam
non are now the property of the State
Of Michigan, long mute now, in con-
trast to the days when they Numbered
in defense Of the flag and the union.
Their story is thrilling one, but
nothing which they could tell were
they able to speak it in words, would
be more redolent of deep patriotism
and real devotion to duty than the tale
of George Van Pelt, who, in the most
literal sense, "Stood by his guns" at
Chickamauga- - Detroit Saturday
Night.