AN INCIDENT OF THE FIERCE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4907, 24 March 1894, Page 2

AN INCIDENT OF THE FIERCE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.

vD... oit Free Press.) . ! Hooker opened the fight on Leo's left j at An tietam. M'Olellan meant that to be the* battle of his life. His scouts had brought him information that Lee's army was strung out from Sharpsburg to Harper's Forry, and that the force in gray on the line of hills above him numbered only a few thousand hungry and foot-sore men, most of whom had marched all night. Lee had to halt at Sharpsburg. He had to fight there. When he looked down on those moving masses of blue hiß heart must have grown faint. He had sent word to Jackson the day before to close up. He had sent him word at dark that haste was urgent. Another courier had departed at midnight with the messages "If you do not reach me before noon thia army will be prisoners or exterminated." j Jackson was coming, and praying that ' the Federals would delay. Every horse waa carrying, double — every vehicle filled with his infantry— every thirsting, hungry, halting man was entreated to hurry. While Hooker was opening the fight on M'Clel- ■ lans right, Jackson's men were coming up. j There oould be no bait for rest or food. Lee's left was beicg held by three or four skeleton brigades, and the musketry had hardly begun to volley before they were forced to give ground. Jackson rode on ahead—- his men followed in twos and thraea and groupß. As.fast as they came up. they ■ formed a battle-line. Some were killed before they knew the position of the i Federals dashing at them* . >. It was hardly daylight when we, under Hooker, pushed forward. Every private in the ranks realised the object—to smash Lee's left and take his centre in flank that would roll him away from the ford, and ■ the centre and left would wipe him off the ! face of the earth. Hooker waa a fighter i and a rusher. Half an hour more and we ! ohould have doubled that flank back. It was falling back — falling back, but fight- i ing for life— when Jackson came up. We I heard the cheering and suspected the ' cause. The advance had disarranged our lineß. The order came to cease firing and dress for another forward movement. That ; cornfield made famous by historians was j on our brigade front as wo moved. Every man who was there that day will remember j how the corn-stalks waved and rustled aa j we pushed through them— how tbe silken j tassels became detached and floated into ! our faces like spider-webs on a dewy j summer's morning. They were waiting ; for vs — the men who had come up from * Harper's Ferry without a halt, ready to die to save Lee'a left wing. At. first a . scattering fire— a man falling out here and j there. The pop ! pop ! pop ! inorea.es in ; rapidity — now it becomes a oontinued roar ; —here cornea the command to charge! , There is a cheer— a rush, and we are , checked. Men cannot dodge bullete, but " we dodge, nevertheless, as they zip aud j spit and whistle by our ears. A storm of •' bullets cannot be breasted like a gale of wind laden with snowflakes, but we b.nd our heads and advance. What has happened P lam down among the cornstalks ! * Did I stumble and fall S3 the line swept forward ? lfc is like waking ■ out of a deep sleep— like coming back to : earth after a physician bas administered * chloroform. Ah ! Jfow I get a twinge of • pain — I have been hit! A bullet haa : crashed into my shoulder, spun me around j like a top, and then dashed me to earth in j a heap. Men struck that way lose con- j sciousness for minutss or hours. The roar « swells out again. I hear men cursing and cheering, and I. finally understand that onr lines have been driven back. I lift my head for a hasty look around, and I find that I havo lots of company. The dead • and wounded are as numerous as the j eornhillß. ! A bulletin the shoulder is nothing. A i gill or two of blood lost from the body is of t no account. I turn over, eeize a dead man ; by the arm and pull myself up, but. every- [ thing dances before my eyes and I sink j down in a heap. It isn't the wound itself, j but the shock to the nervous system. I've seen a sis-footer drop in a heap and cry like a woman because a bullet had made : one of his fingers an inch shorter, and he j was never charged with being a coward, either. There is no euch thing as time on a ! battlefield. A general may watch its flight, but a private soldier hss no thought of it. The sun may have been at meridian when the battle opened. All of a sudden he ia amazed that the orb has gone from sight. He has fought on and given no heed to time. Only half conseions— only half realizing j that 1 wss hit, I by aud-by felb the cool | breezes of evening and lost the glare of the _ an. Some oue gave me water, but I felt too dreamy to open my eyes. Some one pulied a dead man off my legs — a wounded comrade who had crept over to me iv search of water and died. But I did not open my eye.. ; I could not. It seemed as if groat weights had been placed on my eyelids to keep thorn shut. There was a babel of sounds around me, but I heard only one voice. That sounded miles away, as it .aid : " Here ia an ' F Company man who was hit this morniflg, and he must have got_ii hard, or he would have crawled back to us ! "