Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1882 — Gallant Deeds. [ARTICLE]

Gallant Deeds.

At Stone river when Crust’s brigade of Palmer’s division was pursuing the routed rebels on the 2d of January, they came suddenly on a reserve battery that opened on them with surprising furys The men were ordered to lie down, and dropped in the soft mud of a cornfield. The rebel artillerymen had the range, however, and poured shot and shell into the advance line in a way that tore some unfortunates in pieces and covered nearly every one with mud. In the midst of the terrible fusillade, a shell struck between two men lying flat on the ground, so near to their heads as to stun both. Dozens of men, the bravest there, closed their eyes in anticipation of the terrible scene that would follow the explosion. But one of the soldiers at whose shoulder the smoking shell had .struck, digging up a handful of mud, held it aloft for a moment while he said coolly, “ Ten to one, boys, she don’t busty” and then with a sort of gleeful agility he brought his great wad of mud down on the shell smoking in the shallow hole, and “she didn’t bust.” When Sherman was getting ready for his move on Atlanta great quantities of ammunition were stored in the railroad sheds at Resacca. One day, in the midst of a thunder-storm that dismantled the camp, the ammunition building was struck by lightning. Hundreds of the bravest soldiers ran blindly away as they saw the boxes of shell thrown about, saw the guards drop as if shot, and saw smoke issuing from the top of the great pile of explosives. But one man, clear-eyed and cool-headed, saw that the smoke came from tow in which the shells were packed, and, climbing to the top, he seized tbe burning mass, and holding it up shouted, “Allright, boys ; no fireworks this time.” His intrepidity and alertness saved the ammunition and possibly many lives.