The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-09-09
Die Artistically
 at Fort Griswold
But Private Ban Bidwell Finds Critics Thrusts at Technique Worse Than Yankee Bullets"
(Hartford Courant)

Ten men fell in the furious as- sault on Fort Griswold Monday, 10 brave and courageous soldiers of the Foot Guard. They fell = al- though not mortally wounded - with histrionic aplomb, for they were waging a bloodless conflict, the reenacting of the really tragic battle of !Groton Heights 15O years ago.
 In the heat of the battle no one can pause to compose the dead. So dead" they lay, these 10 British CTS. crumpled artistically about their flintlocks, while their mates raced forward to swell the heav- ing press which stormed the fort and "massacred" Major Leslie L. Pierce's garrison. Quiet they lay. oblivious to all things as the Put nam Phalanx went to a horrible death.
 Among the first of the Foot Guards to fall was Private Daniel D. Bidwell of First Company. He was prepared for this turn of cir cumstance; soldier of war, he knew death was ever near. But of the spectators of warfare, those who viewed the battle at a safe distance, what do they know, what do they think of the soldier pros- trate and alone? Soldiers who fell on other fields of war never knew It remains now for Private Bid-
 DEAD" Soldier Tells Story Refreshed by a hearty luncheon this soldier related his tale, a true disposition of what he saw and heard in death. The scene is the top of the hill where the "wound- ed" guardsmen, buffeted about by their mates, lay gasping silent oaths. He begins the story with the appearance of two girls, one younger and less difficult to ex- cuse.
 Here begins the deposition: Quietly l lay a dead soldier, alone but not for long. A little girl sprang into the quadrant of my vision.
 "'Oo-oh, Grandpa! See, here is dead soldier" she thrilled.
 Dead on the battlefield," grand pa explained.
 The trouble with this recital is that few readers will believe it, and yet 1t is as correct as any of Major Hyde's briefs or demurrers or arguments and more concise.
 Give him pop corn, Grandpa"
 "Hain't you had too much pop and too much corn?" Grandpa asked of the British soldier.
 He is not dead; he is trans lated" scholarly cleric with a Roman collar interpolated.
 "Ain't you really dead?" the lit- tie girl asked. thrilling with deli cious doubt.
 Come right away from that terrible man." ordered Grandma, coming into the busby's field of vision.
 You ain't terrible, are your" the little girl asked of dead File No. 2, rear. rank, left guard. Lieu tenant Merwin's company. And a perplexed Thomas asked:
 Gan youse guys talk when you are dead?"
 Enter the Blonde
 A blonde in neck furs fitted in- to the field of vision. "Give him an ice cream cone," her escort ad- vised.
 "Ain't you horrid, willie," she registered with disapproval. And of the dead she asked:
 Don't you want my furs under your neck. It must be awful there on that dirty grass with nothing CT to ease it."
 This is no necking party" the escort remarked somewhat frigid- ly. For the first time the dead man spoke.
 Say, Marion or Helen or Ethel or Olga,' he asked, twill you get | o fAA k1t here"
 "They didn't have ice cream so. das in 17s1." the stern escort vol- unteered from his side of the field of vision. "They had old Med ford" Well. bring on old Med- ford in clipped ice."
 "Wiiiie, you might at least keen those horrid grasshoppers away" a girl with red hair advised.
 "f thought that when soldiers died in a charge they fell forward