AMERICA’S GREATEST BATTLE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7920, 18 August 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMERICA’S GREATEST BATTLE.

THE THRILLING STORY OF GETTYSBURG.

“ TTKS, that was ‘some’ battle, if you like,”_seid! a veteran of the American Civil War to the writer—“one of tho stubborneyt and l most sanguinary in the whole history of w T ar. I oppose in these days when millions are pitted; against millions, it would be looked on us a mere ‘scrap’; but I tell you, tor grim, fierce fighting and bloodshed no battlefield in Europe can beat that oi Gettysburg in 1863. For four terrible day® 170,(XK) men were locked in a lite-and-d'eatk struggle n?j pitiless as the grave; for four days the Federal army fought like demons, a losing battle, again.>t superior, forces; then with one supreme, almost sJiiperliuman, effort, when all seemed lout, they snatched a victory out of the very jaws of disaster. “ It was atfer the defeat of the army of tlie Pot-omac at Ohahcellorsville, on May 3rd., 1863, that the Confederates—the army of the Southern State? —-made a second desperate invasion of the North. They swept like an irresistible wave into Pennsylvania, and had got as far as Gettysburg, unopposed,, when they found their -wav blocked by the Federal army under General Mea-dle; and it was there that the battle was fought which was the turning-point in the Civil War.

“Fifty-four years have gone since then. 1 was a youngster of twenty at the time, and I am now an old man; but I recall every incident as vividly as if it had all happened last year. I can hear the deafening tumult of battle—•' tho roir of the cannon, the crashing of the shells, the tornado scream of the bullet*, the shouts and curses of men roused to madness, the groans of the stricken and dying. “J can see our valiant men, grimfaced and w’ild-eyed, fighting like demons in an inferno off smoke, red with flame as from the mouth of hell: T can see them falling like corn Wilder the sweep of the sickle, until every yard of ground is red with blood and dark with fallen heroes. For every soldier in both armies was -a hero that day, looking death defiantly between tlie

THE AMERICAN Ac A FIGHTING MAN.

“What the French were at Verdun, and tlio British at Yimy and on the Somme, the American * soldier was at Gettysburg in those July days* so long ago—and, if possible, more; for no men ever fought .with a more glorious, reck-, le.-s courage, with a more utter contempt for danger, and a more iron will to win at any cost, in the history of the world. And, mark my words, the American fighter will acquit himself no less splendidly in this war than his' father or grandfather at Gettysburg. He may be slow to rouse; when his blood is up and he has a good! cause, to champion, he is a very devil to fight. “But to return to mv story and my humble part in it. No July ever.opened more fair and peaceful than that of 1863 which, before .many hours had pass'ed, was to witness so much tragedy. For a month or more the division to which I was attached had been leading a picnic sort of life, a® if there was no such thing as -war—easy marches, punctuated by long spells of pleasant bivouacking in glorouis summer weather. Then on the firdt of J uly, a day of perfect sunshine and beauty, came a rude awakening with the news that the Confederate army was pouring northward through Pennsylvania-, and with ordto join the rest of our army near Gettysburg to stay the advancing tide of the enemy.

“At tiie news the whole dr vision awoke to enthusiastic life. We were fed up, as you say, with our long spell of inaction; a.nd the prospect of a fight made the eyes- sparkle and the bloodcourse through the veins. Within an hour the whole division tills' on the march, with shoulders squared, head erect, and jaunty step, for every in ail was hCraining at the lesudi’ to get at the. enemy; and to judlge fiiiom the ftterii, resolute look on each face it would Hire ill with him.

“ Wo had proceeded by forced marches, with short spells of rest, for a few hours when there came to my ears the distant, faint boom of guns; and, at the sound, a wave of excitement passed' through the far-reaching column of dusty, perspiring men. W'hero did the sound come from? Whnt did it mean? were the questions that ran from lip? to lips along the line. The firing seemed to lie from the north; the battle had evidently begun. Should we he too late? “Then came enlightenment with' the news—brought by a galloper on a foamsmothered horse—that Rir nolds’. division had met the enemy near Gettysburg and had at.once furiously"engaged him. He was badly in need- of .reinforcements ; there was no moment to waste. It wa3 ‘hell,’-said the messenger; and ’f we were to be in it, before it was too late to save Reynolds and his stalwarts from annihilation, we must hurry up for all wo were worth.

“That was. enough for us. Tired though we were bv three hours’, hard tyra-mping under the hot sun, with the perspiration streaming from every pore, and each mouth like a limekiln from diii?t and thirst, we spuing forward as one man, raid marched as men have seldom marched to battle a.nd death. THE LIMIT OF ENDURANCE. “It was noon when at last, limp and almost reeling from exhaustion, we marched through Gettysburg and slaw the scene of battle stretching before us under the blazing sun of the hottest day T remember. The very air seemed to palpitate and shudder with the heat. About a mile away, across a belt of waving corn, was a- long line :of tin* Confederate forces some eighty thousand? strong, and away to our left, in smoke and flame, was Reynolds’ division hotly engaged with the enemy’s right. There was, indeed, no moment to lose. But humhn nature haw its limits, and we had reached ours. Tortured bv thirst, with empty stomachs and exhausted bodied, it would have been sheer madness to enter the fight without an interval for rest and refreshment; and for ten minutes we flung ourselves, linij) but very thankful, on the ground to stretch our weary limbs, and sni'tch a hr.st-’ meal of bbouit® and co\l pork, washed down hv draught t .of water which wr. more delirious than nnp neetar. •‘ln r few minutes, we knew, we should bo at prir's-witli d<V'tb‘: we-kTv*w that for hundreds of us tint was the last meal, the kivit rest on earth ; but no nnn of us all was dismJived bv th* l thoiiah-t. no cheek blanched.' Each face T Yoked on—and T can see them now—had +ho same loyk of inflexible resolve; there was lamrhter and jest, on many lips, p few word® of muttered nyayer on not ".few. .Then, when wo had snatched tho la.«t, mouthful and drained the la-t drop of life-g'ving water, wo sprang to our fet giants refreshed —and the battle began. . “To those who only know war as ; t

is waged to-day with quick-firing rifles that deal death a couple of miles distant," with machine-gun® and bombs, treuchet? and dug-outs, it is not easy to realise a -mttle as it wa>j fifty years ago. In those days there was no burrowing in tile earth, no bombarding an invisible enemy. It was a grim, deadly duel, man to man, face to face, at .short range with muzzle-loaders that fired bullets like.marbles, at a range of a tew hundred yards—bullet® which, when they struck, shattered flesh and bones like small explosive shells. DEADLY VOLLEYS. “Jn front of ns and parallel to u*s wore ranged tlie enemy in overwhelming numbers. Thcv were separated from us by a strip of corn-fields little more than a quarter cf a mile w ide — •>.o dope to. us in fact wy.re jhoy that we could see the. individual faces and hear the words cf command. But there was no time for inspection or thought, tor no sooner had we taken up our positions than a deluge of bullets is wept into u.i and over our heads. Lucia iv they were fired wildly, but in tlie very first volley scores found their billets and .our men began to fall, leaving mmiy a gap in .the ranks. This was the signal for hell to be let loose. Fast as we could load our rifles, volley answered volley. Furiously, breathlessly ettch man loaded and fired, as if possessed L; a demon of slaughter; and each volley, we. say to our delight, reaped 'ts harvest of destruction across the waving- corn. ‘Fire low, boys; fire low!’ tlie order rang out; and) as the nie.i obeyed the execution became more and more deadly. “Step by step we advanced slowly as we fired, to meet the enemy advancing step by step towards us, trampling down the wheat in our forward progress. Minute by minute the ceaseless rattle of the rifles swelled louder and louder, mingling with the thunder of the heavy gun® and the crashing of shells until it reached a. deafening pandemonium of sound through which one heard faintly the hum of thousands of buHetsi, the frenzied shouts' of the living .and the groans of the dying. For our men were now fulling thick as autumn leaves, struck (load or ebbing out their lives among the corn.

’ I saw the man on my right, stop suddenly, then fling up his hands and lurch forward a lifeless heap. A few seconds later I heard an exclamation from the man on my left; and glancing round 1 caught a moment..ry sight of horror-struck eyes and a face, half of which wa, shot away, before he crumpled up and collapsed at my feet. “To add to the horror of* it all we were soon fighting lilimlhv amid dense, suffocating clouds of smoke, pierced by thousand - of darts of flame, and mode hideous by a tumult as if all the fiends of tin lower regions were let loose. And almost worse than the tnm-ii.lt and the darkness way the intolerable heat which blazed down on us from the sun ever cur holds. The perspiration was pouring from me; my mouth and throat were parched a® the Sahara ; and I was suffering torture from a- thirst which there was no hope of quenching.

• Where the enemy were now it was impossible to say. All we could do was to fire at hazard in the direction of the points of flame that pierced the smokeclouds. But in spite of the horror of it all, not a man wavered. Hundreds, we knew, must have a confused memory of a few phantom shapes firing frantically; but as far a® the rest were concerned we might have been alone.

“Thus for what seemed like, an etornit'v I carried 1 a charmed life. Then came a terrible and rdbmatic change. Away to the right - no longer in front—--1 heard the roar of cannon, and a deluge of shells came crashing down our lines. The enemy had brought his guns into a position to enfilade us and was skittering death along tlie whole length of our lines. We all knew what that meant; it meant that we must either retreat or he utterly annihilated, arid human courage and endurance had now reached their limits. To gjo on or to stay would be sheer madness', and we began to move doggedly backward,. OBLIVION. “Then at this moment of crisis tame the end of it all for me. I had retreated but a few yards when suddenly I felt a* if I been struck a heavy blow oii •the thigh with .a crow bar. The smoke whirled round me in 'eddies';- I reeled and fell to the earth. - I have a blurred memory of the onrush of a shouting host, of the trampling of many feet past and over me—Vile feet of the enemp in -pursuit. Then came darkness and oblivion. " When at last 1 recovered mv senses I found myself in bed in a farmhouse, .• doctor (lending anxiously over me; and from him I learnt that 1 had been'imconsicioiis four days ; that tlie, battle was over, and, joy of joys, that we had actually won ! What had happened l after my small part in the fight was ended' irin be told in few words. “ For three more days the battle had raged furiously. The Confederates, with superior numbers and two big guns to our one, had forced oia* men back step by step, the Federal? contesting each yard with the ferocity of tigers at bay, and leaving every yard strewn with the enemy’s dead and their own. Again and again they were flung back. Thus minute by minute aid boor by hour the terrible dud had raged until the whole field was littered with the slain and red with tiheir blood. “Then came tho dramatic climax to the battle, which so far had gone all in favour of tin* enemy. On the fourth of July the Southerners decided to make one colo-sal arid supreme effort to secure the victory w hich so tantali-'ingi.y eluded them. Massing all their forces, they hurled themselves like an avalanche on the Federals, now reinforced

and in a strong position. This effort, instead of being a crowning victory, proved disa torid, for the men of the North not onlv flung them back, but attacked them in turn with such force and fury that thev scattered them like chaff before a tornado.

“Thus by their unconquerable courage and tenacity tin* Northerner*-! at» last won one of the bloodiest and most fior.eel|7-fought battles in history, and turned the tide of the Civil War definitely against .the South. And never has victory been mace dearly bought, for of every three men who took part 'll the. battle of Gettysburg.one wi.y efther killed or wounded. .Fifty tfidjisand men fell ill those four terrible days in the cornfields of Pennsylvania —and every man. Northerner or Southerner, was a boro!”