The Civil War in song and story

ANECDOTES, POETRY, AND INCIDENTS.

All concurred in the definite statement of the
passage, and the heroic explorer once more led
lus men into the wild country of the Indians.

INCIDENT OF ANTIETAM. — At the battle of
Antietam, as one of the regiments was for the
second time going into the conflict, a soldier
staggered. It was from no wound, but in the
group of dying and dead, through which they
were passing, he saw his father, of another regi
ment, lying dead. There, too, was a wounded
man who knew them both, who pointed to the
father's corpse, and then upwards, saying only,
"It is all right with him." Onward went the
son, by his father's corpse, to do his duty in the
line, which, with bayonets fixed, advanced upon
the enemy. When the battle was over, he came
back, and with other help, buried his father.
From his person he took the only thing he had, a
Bible, given to the father years before, when he
was an apprentice.

THE LITTLE GIRL'S KINDNESS TO THE SOL

The officer then kindly said : " You may keep
all these things ; they wil help you and can be
of little good to us," and gave the old man a
" safeguard," which might save his property from
our troops. Three years before, this man owned
a large, well-stocked plantation ; had cattle and
hogs in plenty, with servants to come at his call,
and corn to sell or keep. Now, he was sincerely
thankful, and much moved that we spared him
his four little shoats, his pittance of corn, and his
old mare-mule with which he hoped to make a
small crop next spring. The war has been at his
very door ; he had seen it in all relations, and
knew that it was vigorously prosecuted.

THE LITTLE GIRL'S KINDNESS TO THE SOL
DIERS. — "After the battle of Sharpsburg, we
passed over a line of railroad in Central Georgia.
The disabled soldiers from Gen. Lee's armies were
returning to their homes. At every station the
wives and daughters of the farmers caine on the
cars, and distributed food and wines and band
ages among the sick and wounded.

" We shall never forget how very like an angel
was a little girl, — how blushingly and modestly
she went to a great rude, bearded soldier, who
had carved a crutch from a rough plank to re
place a lost leg ; how this little girl asked him if
he was hungry, — and how he ate like a famished
wolf! She asked if his wound was painful, and
in a voice of soft, mellow accents, 'Can I do
nothing more for you V I am sorry that you are so
badly hurt; have you a little daughter, and wont
she cry when she sees you ? '

ANECDOTES, POETRY, AND INCIDENTS.

The experience of that fortnight shows how
much iron and lead may fly about men's ears
without harming them. During the whole bom
bardment only two persons at the head-quarters
were injured. The surgeon of a Rhode Island
battery was slightly wounded in the head by a
piece of shell which flew into his tent ; and a pri
vate, who laid down behind a log for protection,
was instantly killed by a shell knocking a splinter
from the log, which fractured his skull. There
were many hairbreadth escapes ; but not another
man received a scratch.

During the artillery fighting, the day before
Antietam, Sumner lay upon the grass under the
shade trees, in front of the brick house which
served for General Head-quartos. A few yards

ANECDOTES, POETRY, AND INCIDENTS.

ANECDOTES, POETRY, AND INCIDENTS.

soldier was placed on the cars, and then bade us
good by and left.

" I wrote you at the time how we got to Alex
andria that night and next morning. Our soldiers
had no time to rest after reaching Washington,
but were ordered to Maryland by forced marches.
Several days of hard marching brought us to
Frederick, and the battle of South Mountain
followed. The n?xt day our army stood face
to face with 'h* whole force. The rattle of one
hundred and fifty thousand muskets, and the fear
ful thunder of over two hundred cannon, told us
that the great battle of Antietam had commenced.
I was in a hospital in the afternoon, for it was
then only that the wounded began to come in.

ANECDOTES, POETRY, AND INCIDENTS.

And he accordingly delivered himself up.

A JOKE ON A REBEL EDITOR. — The editor
of the Rebel Banner, published at Murfreesboro'
until Bragg's retreat to Shelbyviile, and after
wards hailing from the latter town, tells the fol
lowing good story :

On Wednesday, the 31st of December, 18G3, we
went to the battle-field in search of glory and items.

ANECDOTES. POETRY, AND

At the battle of Murfreesboro', where the
Union forces were to ten by surprise, before day
light in the morning, after beating the long roll,
and pulling the fifer out of bed to assist him, he
threw aside his drum, and seizing a gun, fired six
teen rounds at the enemy from the window of the
court-house in which his regiment was quartered ;
but the nationals were compelled to surrender,
and they were all taken prisoners, but were im
mediately paroled, and afterwards sent to Camp
CJhase, Ohio.

THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG.

ANECDOTES, POETRY, AND INCIDENTS.

COMEDY OF BATTLE. — A correspondent tells
this incident of the fight at Murfreesboro' :

" A cluster of mangled fellows were huddled
about a field hospital waiting surgical attention.
A big, brawny trooper, with a bullet in his left leg j
and another in his right arm, hobbled up, holding 1
his wounded arm in his left hand. « Doctor,' said !
20

ANECDOTES, POETRY. AND INCIDENTS.

At the outbreak of the present civil war, his
eldest son, now a young man, was induced by a
friend, a captain in a Western regiment, to enlist
in his company. He carried himself well through
campaigns in Missouri and Tennessee, and after
the capture of Fort Donelson was rewarded with
a First Lieutenant's commission. At the battles
of Murfreesboro' he was wounded in the left arm,
but so slightly that he was still able to take
charge of a squad of wounded prisoners. While
performing this duty, he became aware that one
of them, a middle-aged man, with a full, heavy
beard, was looking at him with fixed attention.
The day after the fight, as the officer was passing,
the soldier gave the military salute, and said :

" A word with you, if you please, sir. You
remind me of an old friend. Are you from New
England?"