Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1898 — FEAR IN BATTLE. [ARTICLE]

FEAR IN BATTLE.

ThcColonel Says No . nWent Through the War Without I'.x perieiicing It. They wi re talking about a soldier's feelings in brittle ai 1 some expressed tile opinion (I.at man nn n went through the civil v.,:r without ix ing frightened at any time by their personal danger. It was tile < plouel, who had gained honors < ii the battlclicld. who answered him" as follows: “When 1 s’arted out I felt sure that I would never ki'.ow' what the feeling of fear was, and e: j erience taught me that ail soldiers went forth with the same impression. Gad, how 1 changed my niind during my first skirmish! We were behind an embankment ami I was In command. It just rained lead across our hea Is. Every time a man raised his head above the breastworks it came whizzing off his shoulders as sure as shooting. I got scared. I could feel iny.-elf growing colorless. I couldn’t articulate. My arms grew rigid, and to save me I e6i:’Jn’t Lave put in a load. AU of a sudden it came to me that t.lio men under me know that I was si arid. Ti.i-. th 'iigiit.’mo<em dup my tongue and joints a bit. Then it Hashed over me that it would never do for mi l to let-my men know that I was afraid, ami that 1 must do sometihing to prove that I was not. What could I do? The man next to me poked his head up at that point and a minie ball took him right between the eyes. A cold sweat broke out on me, and I was re.' ly to collap e, when all of a sudden it came to me that ail would be lost; that I should bo ruined if 1 let my men go on thinking that I was a coward. I seized my field glasses and with a shout leap i J ;o r ... top of the breastworks. i raj.. ; ( (hose glasses to my eyes, au i for a s ' [ our enemy almost stopped firing t.liey were so astonished. I look-. 1 from one end of their lines to the other. “ ‘Come down from there, you d d little fi ill’ said a rough voice behind me, and I was jerked Baek into the ditch by a powerful force. ‘Do you want to got killed?’ It was my colonel’s voice and bis hand that saved me. Vi hat did I see through the field glasses? Not a thing. I was too seared. A blind man could have seen more. But I saved my reputation. Many times after that I was frightened in battle, but never so much so, and I never shirked. Eroni that day until the war closed my men adored me, and they thought 1 never knew what fear was during the whole of those four bloody years.” “V» hat did they think ailed you that day?" “It went the rounds in my company that I had an at.:."-:; o f trouble,’’ answered the ( with a laugh, “ami I never took the trouble to cor rei-t (he story. It w:.-- time in a way, for 1 was so frightened that my heart almost stoppi d besting. It’s bosh to talk about air,' man going through the war without D eling fear. Any brave old soli:ter \i! toll you of experiences such as I have told.”