The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-05-30

fires are famed to temporary blaze as the ou
fighting men live over the days when as staiwart'
dashing youths they went fOrth INTO Dalue IL
their country.
And well worth hearing are the stories they tell.
The truth Is that desperate valOr has always
been Il characteristic of the American fighting man.
The present generation Of American youth mas
proved itself q little more sure of Itself, a little
more daring. a little more muscled than any Amer
lean generation that has gone before. 1t has
proved itself a little bit snapper and harder than
any race Of men that has ever gone before. Never
theless, the fighting spirit has always been the
same in the American soldier.
The exploits of our fighting men In the Revolu-
ton and the War of 1912. as 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 Spanish-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 an automatic pistol and did
not contend with poison gas and flame, but per-
haps he came oftener to actual hand-grips 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 of
desperate courage.
And as the years go by-it is now So years since
the Confederate guns opened on Fort Sumter and
the majority Of the POS, SOS Civil war soldiers on
the pension roll are we'll past their three score and
tent is likely the veterans more often live over
In memory the old days-fghting their battles over
again.
What scenes Of desperate valor their waking
dreams renew The stories, for instance, of the
deeds for which 1900 medals Of honor were award
ed from 1861 to 1913 would make thrilling reading
indeed. And in many an instance there Is a miss
ing limb, q CHASTITY scar, a twisted frame 10 bear
mute witness of the ferceness of the combat.
Here are some stories of Civil war 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 on July 1, 1862. 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 a
gunshot wound in the chest, which rendered him
unconscious. In this condition he was carried by
comrades q short distance to the rear and left to
die. An hour or 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
Slxty-ninth New York, took his place In the ranks
and resumed firing. Then he was again Frustrated
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 to Richmond.
Osborne recovered to become q successful Boston
lawyer and got his medal of honor In 1898.
Joseph s. G.. Sweat was at Carsville. Va, May
~ fQ6s About 5000 Union Infantry And. th0