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in one engagement the regiment next to it on the line, and engaged not more than half of the time lost—in killed and wounded —sixty-fiv® men out of every one hundred that went into the tight, while the total low of this regiment was bnt twenty-six, killed and seriously wounded all told. Notwithstanding that it held the left of the line where the most severe attacks of the enemy was made and where the enemy's losses were the heaviest—its losses were the lightest of any regiment of equal number engaged on either side.Its small proportion of losses in battle also held good from disease and the ordinary casualties of the maroh and oamp, demonstrating, as I think, that this economy of life was not the result of ohance. The smallness of its own losses and the greatness of the losses of the enemy in front of its line has always been and will ever be pointed to with that pride which prompts the player to call attention to similar results in his game as evidence of his•kill.War is a great game and these men by their intelligence and devotion to duty soon learned the art of war and beoame skillful players, iuflioting heavy losses on their adversary, while suffering much less them-selves.■ The nobility, cohesivaness and elasticity of the regiment and its capacity to move over broken ground was much greater than that of any body of men 1 ever saw. The result was that it beoome able under fire to ohange positions with great rapidity and take advantage of every undulation in the ground or other obstruction that would shield men from the fire of the enemy.Exoept in the first volley in tha battle of Prairie Grove—that battle proper having been opened by it—the regiment never stood up in line and fired iuto the enemy's line after the manner shown by the ordin-ary pictures of the war, and then when the enemy returned the fire they were lying fiat on the ground, protected by an intervening ridge, and the enemy's balls wbis tied harmlessly over them. They always fought exposing the fewest possible number of men and the least possible portion of any man to the fire of the enemy, which generally meant fiat on the ground.Exoept by the explosion of shells at Vioksburg and Mobile, none of them were killed or fatally wounded by artillery, it may be of interest to our young friends here to know that looking from straight behind, or straight from front into the mouth of a cannon you can see the shot almost from the time it leaves the muzzle of the gun, and that irrespective of its size or shape it presents the round appearance of a common playing ball—and usually about the size of one—except where the velocity is very great, then it looks like a toy rubber ball, enlarging as tbe speed lessens by distance when near the end of its journey, showing its full size and form.For this reason any regiment drilled as this one was might bepntou rolling ground and fired at with a single oannon for a month and there would not be a man hurt. It would be as profitless to do as would be shooting at loons with a flint-lock musket, while they, with their guns, would soon pick off every man working the oannon. With a number of guns in a battery to di-vide the attention the result might be different.This whole regiment, exoept a few men just over the border, was raised in this county. Whole companies oarne from tbe same neighborhood. The home friendships and interests in eaoh other increasedorders. Don't shake your heads now that way. You absolutely refused to obey my orders; be patient a few minutes and I will prove it on you. Foust’s battery was in the wheat field. I was ordered to support it with the filth aud the remuaut of the lfitb I Iowa whose colonel, McFarland, had just been killed. The 37th Illinois and 2(th Indiana were moving on the enemy's line.I did not believe that they could sustain the shook, the mass was so heavy in front of them, and on my own motive I moved to the front to the position gained by us in the first forward movement. This would give us au enfilade should Black and Olark fall back, and where we oould help them if they suooeeded in getting through. They were compelled to fall back and we got an enfilading fire on the enemy's line such as mortal men could uot stand. Withal they passed around our right and rear and went through and over Foust’s battery when I saw a man with a small rebel flag on a cane fishing pole standing on one of the gun carriages swinging it. My heart jumped into my throat. It indicated to my mind that a court martial would probably inquire into the way that I had supported that battery. Much to my detriment a clear case for dismissal, a thousand times worse than death. I determined that no more rebels sbonld get inside of our line, and those in should never take that battery out. With me it was what the boys called a “ground bog case.” Our men were on the ground along a rail fence, along side of which a bank had been thrown up from year to year by plowing to prevent the washing away of the soil in cultivating the field in which tbe enemy was, and thus completely protecting our men from a I withering fire sent over them. They were doing splendid work. The climax was just reached, the enemy were falling baok, when for the first and only time 1 got off my horse that I m'ght see under the smoke bank, I watched tor a few seconds, ohanged the line of fire, wbioh 1 could see was de struotive in its effect, and it soon beoame apparent that the field was ours and we would hold our advanced position and save our battery. I may here say that under the cover we gave in keeping the enemy back, tbe battery men in a hand to baud fight had saved their own guns and hauled them off, leaving only a caisson. Oar fire slackened on the right, I cried out for its renewal and change of direction, and while yet down I on my knee in the act of getting ont my field glass to more clearly see the enemy go, one of the oolor guard tapped me on the shoulder and informed me that the regiment was falling back. While I was watching the enemy under the smoke with my attention riveted there, orders sent by the general commanding to me had been given directly to the oompany commanders to fall back, and were repeated and being executed. When I looked up the right wing of the regiment had got some distance back from the fence and out of shelter and the left wing was in motion. I ordered them back to the fence. My orders and the conflicting orders previously given were each repeated at the same time by different line officers. The result was confusion aud disorder on the line. One officer of a oompany was ordering his men forward, another officer of the same oompany ordering them baok, each under the belief that the order bad emanated from me, and in the oonfusion aud noise of firing, yelling and cheering over the suooess in driving the enemy back, eaoh officer not knowing what the other was attempting to do,tbe color guard stooda A A. -___ iL . A-*—I. _ A 1L. ft M
Newspaper Details
Bloomington Daily Leader
Bloomington, Illinois, US
Thu, Aug 28, 1890
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 09 Nov 2020
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