Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1917-05-10
OLLAPODRIDA


were the following:
Seven Days retreat, beginning June
rs at Mechanicsyille, and ending at
Malvern Hill, July 2, 1862; casualties
over 10000
Fredericksburg, December 13N Ii
and 10; casualties over 10000.
charlottesville, May to Z. 1868;
casualties over 1900.
Gettysburg, July I, 2 and 8, 1868;
casualties more than $4,000.
Wilderness, May to Z, 1864; cas-
ualties over 1900.
Spottsylvania, May s to Fl; cas-
ualties over $4,000.
Cold Harbor, June 2 to Is, 1864;
casualties over 10000.
Siege of Petersburg from June 16
to October 26, 1864, which was the
day my discharge arrived, while we
we're standing in the firing line about
to make another attack, having serV-
ed twelve days more than my term OF
three years enlistment.
When enlisted weighed 157 pounds
and upon arriving home weighed only.
96 pounds, having been slightly
wounded four times, and suffered sun
stroke while on forced march.
/ In the battle of Seven Days retreat
my bunkmate, De Witt Collins, was
captured and taken to Libby prison.
In the battle of Cold Harbor my Sec
ond bunkmate, Comrade Murat, was
instantly killed. George w. Griffin
helped me to bury poor Murat and
after that Griffin was my bunkmate
until he was wounded at Hatchs Run
near Petersburg the day I was dis
charged.
At Cold Harbor bullet struck my
gun-lock, shattering it and knocking
me to the ground. My brother Rich
ard of the 36th Wisconsin received
his first wound here by bursting
shell, but remained with his regiment
until bullet shattered his right arm
at the siege of Petersburg, leaving
him cripple for life. On the second
day of the battle of Gettysburg, while
fighting from behind a rail fence
cannon ball struck the third rail
above my head, raising me off the
ground and making me deathly sick
from the conclusion.
At Locust Grove, November II,
1853, two companies of sharpshoot-
ers and two regiments OF infanty sup
ports, while holding back a whole br-
gade of the enemy, the sharpshooters
were fighting from behind rail fence
and my face and hands were bruised
and bleeding from flying splinters,
, knocked off the rails by rebel bullets.
| had fired my allowance OF Sixty
rounds so rapidly my gun became TOO
hot to hold by the barrel. While go
, ing to the rear for more ammunition
I saw a comrade with his hat and
coat off firing up in the air, and an
other firing. down in the ground. Both
were killed instantly while was
passing. Such wild excited shooting
accounts for how SO many escaped in
.. hot fights when bullets fly apparently
like hail.
At Spottsylvania while fighting in
, the trenches with only narrow bank
of dirt between us and the enemy,
nv comrades on, both sides Of me
were shot in the head nearly at the
same time, their brains scattering on
j my face and clothes, Each had been
cautioning the other to Keep down!
Keep down."
These are some of the instances in
a soldiers life who stayed at the
'front.'. Only experienced fighters can
| fully realize such events. | was the
| first of six brothers who volunteered,
ranging in age from sixteen to twenty
nine years. The brother with me in
the Army of the Potomac (referred to
abowe) was finally wounded th'Ee
times. My two brothers in the First
Wisconsin cavalry with General Sher-
man in his march through Georgia,
were both fearfully wounded near At
lanta. One brother had his right eye
shot out and part of his nose shot Off.
The other brother was shot through
the right lung, losing two ribs. The
two brothers (the oldest and young
est of the six in the Fourth Wiscon-
sin cavalry, belonged to the Western
army. The Oldest died in a hospital
and the sixteen-year-old was severely
crushed by his horse and nearly
starved in Texas And still five of
the SIX lived to return to the arms
of their dear widowed mother, who
suffered agony in suspense for the
return of her boys, broken in body
and handicapped for lack of school
ing for the remainder of their lives.
May the God of Justice reward the
soldier boys of 61-'65 who offered
their lives that this land might be
a united country and four millions
of slaves be set free.
/, The crucial test of patriot is for
himself to first enlist, rather than
stay at home and urge his neighbors'
boys to face the bullets
JOHN JOHNSTON.
73S Eighth avenue.