HOW ONE FEELS ON GOING INTO BATTLE.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2178, 27 June 1890, Page 5

HOW ONE FEELS ON GOING INTO BATTLE.

People often wonder how one feels in battle. This depends to a considerable extent on the nature of the conflict, the kind of troops engaged, the weapons employed, and the duration ofthe battle. All men are not affected alike ; some are cool, determined, and courageous ; some lose all judgment, and will, single-handed, rush upon hundreds ; others are entirely unmanned, tremble like aspens, seem dead to every emotion of honour or feeling of shame, and will slink into coverts or run from the field.

If skirmishers engage prior to a general battle, and a desultory firing is kept up for awhile, one becomes used to it ; and, as the battle warms, it frequently becomes exciting, and men who trembled at the first few shots now rush on like heroes.

I remember well my feelings duriog the first battle in which I was engaged. The night before the battle we received orders to prepare to attack the enemy early on the morrow. All was now bustle, hurry, and anxiety ; guns were cleaned, ammunition inspected, straps adjusted, canteens filled, knapsacks lightened, letters written, etc.

We bad several men in our company who had always boasted of their bravery and prowess — men who had been " spoiling for a fight," as they said. These were now as still as mice — they did not speak. One of them, who had taken a master's degree in all kinds of profanity, , borrowed a Bible, sat down and read it for some time, and intimated to his messmates the propriety of their repeating " Now I lay me," etc., before going to sleep that night. It is not your blustering, profane bravado that is the brave man on the field of battle ; it is your quiet 1 , patient, retiring man.

I confess I felt uneasy — a feeling of dread and anxiety stole over me. Battle was certain; the enemy was strongly posted, and we had desperate work before us. I wanted to go into the battle, yet I dreaded it like death. I slept but little that night.

The morning came, and our column moved quietly and sternly forward through a wood. The first intimation we had of the enemy was the skirmishing between his outposts and our vanguard, the former falling back as the latter advanced. We passed out of the wood, and rapidly deployed into line of battle, a gently sloping hill hiding the enemy from our view. A part of our force had been sent round to make a flank and rear attack on the enemy, and while so doing it was of the utmost importance that we should hold his attention in front. We marched steadily up the hill till the whole line of the enemy burst upon our view ; there we halted, aud for some minutes not a gun was fired on either side. There stood the two armies, each waiting for the other to begin the work Of death.

The faces of our men looked pale and determined; some of them stood like statues ; others were nervous and uneasy. It was the time to test the courage of men. A line of cannon was bearing directly upon us. Death to many of us was certain. Who will it be ? thought I.

A singular feeling came over me ; a confused image of a mother and sister appeared flitting ahd floating before my imagination like dissolving shadows, while the tremendous reality in front oppressed me with dreadful forebodings.

A few moments passed, like those that intervene between drawing a cap over a criminal's face and drawing the bolt, when there was a puff of smoke from one of the cannon, followed by a crash, and a bomb went screaming over us. Our men ducked down their heads like geese. Fire was now opened on us along the enemy's entire line. Tbeir first shots were aimed too high. Tbey gradually lowered them. Every discharge brought their balls fearfully nearer.

We were impatient to return the fire, but dared not till the oommand was given. Our colonel passed along in front of the line and urged us to staud firm till the proper time, and the day would be ours. It is a task to hold men exposed to an enemy's fire without allowing them to return it. They will soon run one way or the other.

The enemy's shots now began to whistle round us, plough through our ranks, and tear up the earth about our feet. A ball cut off the bayonet of my comrade on my left; a momeot more and one struck him in the breast, mutil-r ating him fearfully. He reeled and fell like a dog. Great God 1 how I felt it ! A faint, sickening sensation came over me. I stooped down over him. He smiled faintly, spoke my name, gasped, and expired. He was frightfully mangled ; I was maddened to desperation^ A.U

thoughts of fear vanished ; I coull have , fought thousauds. j

The com'.naud, " Fire ! " ran along 1 the line, aud a treimndous crash of musketry auswered to the command. We now loaded and fired for life. D-jnse volumes of sulphurous smoke hung like ] a pall over u-i, and shut the enemy from our sight. The battle grew warm and bloody. The rattle of musketry, the screaming of shell, the thunders of artillery, the whistling of bullets, the shouts of command mingled witb prayers and groans of the wounded and dying, filled all the air.

Oar men, black with smoke and powder, looked like fiend 9 incarnate as they plied their work of death. At length a breeze rolled away the smoke that shrouded us, and disclosed our other columns bearing down upon the enemy's I flank. Now "was the decisive moment.

" Charge bayonets 1 " rang out. **' With loud shouts we rushed to the assault. A storm of grape and canister was hurled against us as we neared the batteries. Like maddened tigers our men leaped forward with the cold steel. The struggle over the guns was desperate. It was a butchery, savage in the extreme. The enemy soon broke and fled, leaving us masters of the field. Since that time I have not felt the least dread or hesitation on entering a battle. After the firsfc few shots I fire away as coolly as when hunting squirrels. As a general rule, small men are more plucky than large ones. We had half-a--dozen boys with us, varying in age from twelve to fifteen years. They were as hearty as bucks and lively as crickets. You cannot dog them away from the army. In a battle, the great trouble with such youngsters is to keep them from rushing ahead too fast. There is a singular fascination attending an army. Men having served one campaign, no matter what may have been their hardships, are almost certain to enlist again.