The Yale expositor., 1919-05-29


fires are famed TO temporary blaze the old
fighting men live over the days when as stalwart,
dashing youths they went forth into battle for
their country.
And we'll worth hearing are the stories they tell
The truth is that desperate valor has always
been a Characteristic of the American fighting man.
The present generation of American youth has
proved itself little Of itself, little
more daring, little more musced than any Amer
lean generation that has gone before. IL mas
proved itself little bit snapper and harder than
any race of men that has ever gone before. Never
theess, the fighting spirit has always been the
same in the American soldier.
The exploits of our fighting men In the Revolu-
tion and the War of 1872, set forth In history,
and the tales still told by survivors of the Mexican
war the Seminole war, the Civil war, the Indian
wars, the Boxer uprising, the Spanlsh-American
war and the Philippine insurrection differ not so
much in kind as in detail from stories of the great
war The veteran who marched with General Scott
from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico did not have
a magazine rifle and automatic pistol and did
not contend with poison gas and fame but per-
haps he came oftener to actual handgrips with the
foe for that very reason. Apparently the aviator
and the U-boat COB are the only men able to add
anything really new to the American annals or
desperate courage.
And as the years go by-it Is now 50 years since
the Confederate guns opened on Fort Sumter and
the majority of the 298,8O8 Civil war soldiers on
the pension roll well past their three score and
tent is likely the veterans more often live over
In memory the old days-hghting their battles over
again.
What scenes of desperate valor their waking
dreams renew The stories, for instance, of the
deeds for which $500 medals Of honor were award
ed from 1861 to 1918 would make thrilling reading
indeed And In many an instance there is miss
ing limb CHASTITY scar, a twisted frame to bear
mute witness of the ferceness of the combat.
Here are some stories of Civil medal OF
honor men to rank with any fighting mans yarn
anywhere:
Among the gallant young men who fought with
Company G of the Twenty-ninth Massachusetts, in
the battle of Malvern hill July 1, 1852, the last
of the seven days fighting before Richmond, was
William III. Osborne. Soon after the opening of the
battle about three in the afternoon, he received
gunshot wound in the chest, which rendered him
unconscious In this condition he was carried by
comrades a short distance to the and left to
die. An hour so later he regained consciousness
and though wobbly weak from loss of blood he
took the gun and ammunition from a dead soldier
and went IN search of his regiment He found the
Sixty-Dnth New York, took his place In the ranks
and resumed firing Then he was again prostrated
by the bursting of a shell which shattered his left
leg. He crawled into some bushes where half
dead. he passed the night When darkness settled
down Mcclellan retreated to the James river, and
next afternoon the Confederates occupied the
battlefield. Osborne with the other prisoners was
taken TO Savage Station and thence 10 Richmond
Osborne recovered to become a successful Boston
lawyer and got his medal of honor in 1893.
Joseph s. O. Sweat at Carsville, Va. May
II. 1868 About 5000 Union infantry and the
Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry were engaged In
tearing up the Roanoke railroad track when they