Year: 1871

ON the Fourth of July In Grand
Rapfds, Michigan. after Sixteen


Years Of separation.


To the Editor of the Grand Rapids Eagle:


Two brothers met in this city on the
Fourth who had been separated sixteen
or eighteen years, having seen each
other but once during all that time.
They were both soldiers of the late war.
One of them had been a resident of the
South for some time, and near neigh
Dor of JEFF. Davis-of whom, as Com
mander-in-chief, he does not speak very
hatteringly-and by compulsion, or 9th
erwise, became a,member of the South
ern army. What his views were then !
know nos, but now he is a firm friend OF
his country and the flag Of our Union.
The other was in the army of the North.
They met on a Southern battlefield,
and the Northern soldier was taken
prisoner by his brother. Though the
roll of the prisoners was made out by
the latter, he did not discover the fact
that among them he had written the
name of his own brother. The captive,
however, was made aware of it by one OF
the officers of the prison where he was
confined, who knew the former resi-
dence of his fellow-soldier, upon an in
quiry into his prisoners mode of life at
the North. They have both resided at
the North since the war, though far
apart, and, as above stated, their first
meeting was in this city on the Fourth.


One discovery often leads to another,
as one thought follows another. have
heard this Southern soldier recount
many of his hair-breadth escapes, and
his accounts of particular battles. and
skirmishes we're so different from others
that have often thought the soldiers
did not report the actions of the armies
as did the reporters for the Journals.
Much of the mystery was to-day un-
folded. | have often reflected upon the
account of one of the battles in South
ern fort, recited by friends who were
eye-witnesses of the conflict, one of
which was assisted from sick bed to a
place of safety. 1t was fortifcation
taken from the rebels, who made a des-
perate and determined effort to retake
It. The daring exhibited by some of the
men in the rebel assault was not sur
passed, probably, during the war They
had been driven from these intrench-
ments which their own hands had made,
and thought they knew the ground. But
the "Yanks had constructed line of
defenses within those made by the
rebels, and the latter met with but little
resistance at the outer works, over which
they rushed pell-mell, and leaping the
intervening space, mounted in hot haste
the inner breastwork, where they were
met with fearfully destructive shower
of bullets. One rebel colonel, as he
gained the works, met bullet from the
revolver of littleldrummer boy; and as
he fell he hurled his revolver at the head
of the little fellow, whose prize it proba-
bly, is to this day. The body of the off
Ger was found buried beneath those of
about twenty Of his own soldiers.


Notwithstanding their hot reception, q
portion of the assailing force rushed
madly on. A colonel in Forests corps
was shot down while waving flag and
urging on his men, and before his body
reached the ground the flag was caught
by another, while all yelled like so many
madmen, directly in front of the officers
quarters. Here it was discovered that
only about dozen of the plucky assail-
ants remained unhurt, and these made
their way out through shower of flying
bullets. Few that entered the works
escaped unharmed.


Today | was astonished to learn that
the man who caught the flag of the fall
ing officer, and so daringly led the way
to the quarters of the officers of oul
army, was none other than the mar
with whom had daily, for the past two
years, been in business relations, and
none other than the Southern soldier
who captured his brother and met him
again for the first time, as above stated
July a 1871.