TRYING HIM OUT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2728, 27 June 1906, Page 76

TRYING HIM OUT.

By C. B. Lewis.

He had finished with West Point and been assigned to the Twenty-second— young Warner, who was only a boy yet, with a face as smooth as a girl's. The captain and first lieutenant of Company A were old West Pointers and should have given the boy a warm welcome and stuck by him until he could stand alone, but instead of that they looked at him askance. The captain himself had a son who had failed to pass at the Point, and this had rankled and embittered him, and the lieutenant had taken up his cause. In the days agone, when a boy from the Point was assigned to a regimenet on the front, he arrived one day to find himself face to face with the enemy tho next. He was given a show, however. His captain or lieutenant kept an eye on him in his first fight, and coached him through it, and helped him to keep his nerve and his honour. Sometimes the boy needed no encouragement — sometimes he would have lost his head and made a spectacle of himself but for the moral support of the veterans. It is always an open question as to how a soldier, be he officer or private, will conduct himself when he faces death for the first time on a battlefield.

Four days after Warner's arrival the command took the field against the Confederates at Chattanooga. The boy was not yet familiar with the faces of his brother officers, and he knew nothing of actual warfare except what he had read. He depended on his seniors to see him through. They had doomed him, however. Thoy had not plotted and planned, but they had looked into each other's eyes and nodded their heads. The boy would be "tried out" within a few days, but ho would have to stand or fall alone. He was full of enthusiasm as the command marched forth, ha vine no doubt of himself, and beint? eager for his baptism. A soldier is not a soldier until he has hoard the bullets whistle about his <>*.v» It is not years of service, but wounds that givo him resoect and dignityThe Confederates had gathered in force and were strongly entrenched. Warner's regiment was rushed forward to open a fight which lasted for three hours. To accomplish results aimed at the command had to be split up, and companies and squadrons sent here and there to fight on their own hook.

"The Cub" had been under the eve of every man in Company A since the first shot was fired, and it was admitted that he bad kept his nerve as well as could be .expected. - The privates spoke in praise of him to each other — the captain and liputen.-mt looked at each other and waited. They had not lorn.; to wait. A Company was sent far out on tho right flank to ino\c up and open a hot fire, and then there was a smile on the cantain's face. To order that boy to push forward with 15 men a^pinst the hundred Confederates Concealed in the trenches was "trying him out," but it was aHo murder. A whole company could pot have carried the oosition. His face paled for an instant, but then the coloiir came back and he shut his teeth hard and I'd the way.

'"Pp.nin him, does Jie want us wiped out to n rp.in '" growled an old sergeant as |,/» W>kfd hark over his shoulder at the captain. But "The Cub" hurried the

little band forward to their work, and five minutes later they were hotly engaged. Little by little Company A was moved to the right, and by and by it was no longer in support of its skirmish line. The time came when it was rifle shot away and' when the "grays" took advantage of it to "rush" the 10 men still left alive in the dips and hollows along that front. There was calculation on the part of the captain — movement on the part of the rebels. "The Cub" had been given no orders except to advance and attack. He found the enemy 10 to one, but he would not fall back. He realised that bis little force must be wiped out, but he encouraged the men to creep nearer. The time came when he saw himseli unsupported and liable to be cut off, but there was no backward movement. If recalled he would retreat, if not he would die on the firing line.

The "rush" came. Fifty ragged but cool and determined Confederates rose up and dashed forward in a body. The boy did not lose his nerve altogether, but he was the only one of the seven or eight living men who was not captured and dragged back into the trendies. It was something like fright in his eyes and face as white as a dead mans that he rejoined his company.

"While temporarily under the command of Second Lieutenant Warner, 15 men were killed or captured. The officer himself escaped by flight. 1 '

Such was the wording of the captain's report and of the dispatch sent broadcast for publication, and "The Cub" found himself ostracized. Some of his brother officers nodded stiffly to him, while others turned their backs. The boy felt that he had been put in a false position for a purpose, but he could prove nothing nor advance any satisfactory explanations. He had obeyed orders, but the act of obedience had ruined his career. There was no com\ oi inquiry — no charges — no court-martial. He was simply ostracized by the officers, and looked at askance by the privates. There were two remediesresignation or suicide. It seemed to him that to send in his resignation after a month's service, and with a campaign still on, smacked of cowardice, and ho was no coward. As to the other remedy — well.

The Twenty-second had not rested 30 days after Chattanooga- before word spread that another terrific battle was imminent. The regiment must prepare to receive the brunt of the fighting again. One morning, as the men were rushing to and fro while making their preparations, "The Cub" rode away , from the lines alone, and only a sentry or two saw him go. He rode straight down the valley at a mad gallop for seven miles, and then drew rein under the trees surrounding a spring. There was but the other remedy left, and he was going to accept it. He had galloped away from all human life to be alone with bis last thoughts and to die by his own hand.

"You see, it was this way," said one ofc three oi 1 four pioneers who came back from a hot skirmish that afternoon with momentous news. "We got word that the 'rebs' was in the valley, burnin' and pillaging, and we set out to bring tho news, but at the Big Bock a band of Confederates headed us off and we had to take cover. We had been standin' them off for two hours and they were gettin* ready for a rush when that boy officer of yours came , chargin' down like a thunderbolt. He had only his revolver and saber, and after he had emptied his revolver he used his steel. Say, now, but he must have wanted to be killed. He rode among the 'rebs' shootin' and slashin' and cheerin', and he got up such a panic among 'em that we had a chance to make a sneak. It was no use to think of helpin' him out, for they were 60 to five- Every one of his bullets brought down a soldier, and he must have slashed half a dozen more, but we had not got out of hearin' when we heard the 'rebs' yellin' and knowed that the boy had gone down. Yes, he was only a kid of a boy, but I'm tellin' you, kurnel, that h) had the heart of a lion and that we are ready to sell our claims to build him a monument 50 feet high I" — Sunday Call.