Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1875 — A New View of Bunker Hill. [ARTICLE]

A New View of Bunker Hill.

A month or two ago Col. Bangs engaged a young fellow named Scudder as sub-editor of the Morning .Argus. On the day before the anniversary of Bunker Hill Bangs asked Scudder if he was familiar with the history of that battle, and Scudder said he was. So Bangs told Scudder he would like him to write up a little sketch of it for the anniversary day, and Scudder said he would try. The next morning the sketch appeared in the Argus, and attracted a good deal of attention. When Bangs saw it he called Scudder in, and said: “Mr. Scudder, didn’t you tell me yoti thought you were familiar with the battle of Bunker Hill?” “Yes, sir." “ Well, if that is the case, I will be obliged to you if you will mention to me what you mean when you say: ‘“By four o’clock the Confederate troops were ready to make the attack. Gen. Washington had the catapults put in line to await their coming, and, when Napoleon saw them, he drew his sword, and exclaimed • “ Soldiers f twenty centuries look down upon you!”’ “ Now; Mr. Scudder, if you had possessed the most ordinary acquaintance with that conflict you would have been aware that Napoleon was not present, and' that the idea of George Washington fighting the Confederate army with catapults is calculated to excite the derision'of edu cated persons. And I wish to direct your attention, Mr. Scudder,-to another historical inaccuracy. At the bottom of the second column there you say: J,. “‘ No sooner were the battering rams leveled against the walls of the castle than the Duke of Wellington sent word to his mother by Gen. Butler that he would either win or be brought home upon his shield. Then, ordering his men to fire at the whites of the enemy’s eyes, he awaited the onset with that majestic calmness which ever distinguished the hero of Buena Vista.’ “ Now, I don’t want to hurt your feel,- ( rings, Mr. Scudder, but .really, for a journalist, you know, this kind of thing won’t do. You certainly must.realize that the .battleof Bunker Hill was not fought.-iji a castle with battering, rams; and., at rate,. whep. allude to the £>uke of Wllljngton.communing with Gen. Butler, and connect him with Buena Vista, there • is actually no hope pt your forming public opinion on thqse topics/ The piiblic mind is made up. And theft a little further On/ in the next column, yqn say: f This was the veiy crisis of the battle.

Joan of Arc. spying Gen. Jackson behind ttie ebtiem bales, aShed at fiim upon her snow-White charger, swinging her ponderous battle-ax above her head; her ftiir hair streamed behind her in the wind. As her steed pressed forward her hair caught in the bough of a tree, and, as she hung there, Serg. Bates shot her through the heart with a bolt from an arquebuss. Her last words were: “ Don’t give up the ship.” ’ “ Now, you see, Mr. Scudder, this kind of thing sets people to talking. It hurts the paper. You’ve got Absalom mixed up somehow in your mind with Joan ,of Are, who died about 10,000 before Gen. Jackson, who wasn’t at Bunker Hill, and who never knew Serg. Bates anymore than Serg. Bates knows how to fire an arquebuss. Arquebuss! Gracious heaven ! I’m afraid this office’ll be mobbed before night. The community is not excitable, but it can’t stand more than a certain amount of insult. Serg. Bates will write us a couple of thousand letters about that allusion to him, and maybe he’ll come to see us. No dopht you meant well, but you’ve about done the business for us, especially here, where you W : “ ‘The Duke could stand it no longer. The Mamelukes had slain all of his vanguard. Gen. Sickles had lost his leg and retired on a pension, and the enemy’s skirmishers, lodged in the top of the monument, were pouring boiling oil on those who attempted to scale it. Leaping upon his horse, he shouted: “ Up, guards, and at them,” and the next moment, with the gloribps flag-of truce in one hand and his sword in the other, he hurled Itis legions upon the lava-beds, and crushed the savage foe to the earth, killing, among others, the well-known Gen. Harrison, afterward President of the United States.’ “The duke! Mamelukes! Flagof truce! Lava-beds! Awful, sir, awful! The Ar_gus is a goner! Gone up, Mr. Scudder! Blain! But how cmitd you have scared up that idea about a man fighting with a flag of truce in his hand? - And how, O how could you have killed a man who you admit was afterward President of the United States ? No comic paper ever surpassed this. It is terrible. I think we shall have to part, Mr. Scudder. It seems to me that your career as a journalist ought to come to an end right here- I will accept your designation. ( * “ Andjjj apyone ssks you why you left the 'A&gks point to this last, paragraph and was Because the'proprietor ■fras afraid he’d murder you when he read your ■statement that ‘At the battle of Bunker Hill the Confederates lost 80,000 and the Carthagenihns only 600,’ and that ‘There is no spot in Vifginia’that the people hold more sacred than that bloody hill where the bones of CfoiAsvell lie with those of Roger Williams, as if in life they had never fought against each other in the cause of the Constitution and cheap transportation.’ Point to that language, Mr. Scudder, and your friends, will,understand the situation. Good morning.” Mr. Scudder withdrew, and he is now looking for another newspaper to ru,in. — Mar Adder i in N. Y.