Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1886 — Corporal Jack. [ARTICLE]

Corporal Jack.

There were ten of us youngsters in the Company “G” squad which Corporal Jack marched forth to drill, and the old man’s face wore a fatherly smite "ds he kept calling: .. “Hay foot—straw "foot—right face—- ' left face—front!” i If he had a home— a wife—children —we did not know. We wondered if he had left anybody behind who would mourn if his life went out on the field of battle ~ but he never talked of such things. ■ He had a way of putting us off* when we began to question of the past. We believed that some dark cloud ! rested ovqy his life, and we agreed among ourselves that it was a mystery which must be held sacred. To the men he was stem and dignified; to us boys he was so kind and gentle that we j grew to look upon him as a father. It was Corporal Jack who currid the blisters” on our feet ; who laughed our homesickness away; who took part of our loads away when the knapsacks galled our backs, When he Counted us after Bull Run and found that three of Lis ten boys had been l left (lead on the. field, we missed him for a time. When he returned to us his eyes had the look of onejwho had been weeping. Later on, when Company “G” swung into the slashed timber at Williamsburg, and : men went down by twos and threes j under the fire of sharp-shooters, it was Corporal Jack who whispered to each one of us: “Steady, my boy! I wouldn’t have you give ground now for the world! More to the right a bit—that’s it—keep covered if you can. ” I remember how the light of battle blazed in his eyes that day as he faced the enemy, and how that light was changed to one of unutterable sorrow as we answered to our names at nightfall and only six “ayes” were heard. The seventh lay dead in the timber, with the whip-poor-will uttering its sad night-call in the branches above him. As we came into battle line at Mechanicsville there was a look of pride in Corporal Jack’s eyes. His boys had grown to be soldiers. Our faces were no paler than those of the sturdy, middle-aged men further along the line. As we knelt beside the log breast-works and opened fire I heard the Corporal saying to himself: “Good! That’s it. Just see how cool they are!” We broke line after line of the gray

as they advanced upon us, but by and by we were forced to yield. A bit of shiver ran along the lines-—the first symptoms of a panic—but the old Corporal was close al hand to say: "Steady, now! Fall back in good order! We are not beaten, but only falling back to a stronger position!” The head of the company broke back —the center fell into confusion —our end of the line simply shivered and then became as firm as a rock. We knew not who had come out alive—who had been killed—until the old Corporal gathered’us under his wings, as it were, long after darkness had shut down, and in a broken- voice said: “There are but four of my boys left, and I cannot sleep!” After the fierce tempest of war had passed over the fields and forests of Savage Station there were only three of us. Corporal Jack bent down over the. fourth, who lay dead in a pool of blood, cut off a lock of his hair, and said, as he reverently placed it in his

pocket: •• • “This is for his mother, whose heart will be breaking over his loss! I pray God the rest of you may be spared!” After Glendale there were but two of us. We toiled wearily over the highway with the stars shining above us* find the sullen crackle of musketry in the rear. Corporal Jack marched with us, but for a long time he was silent. At last he said: 4 “Only two left! After to-morrow—-what?” At Malvern Hill he would have been our breastwork to receive the bullets. Darkness was falling, and we had broken and hurled back the lines of Magruder again and again, when a move by the left flank somehow separated the three of us. There was a fierce and determined advance—a fierce and desperate resistance, and night shut down and the roar of battle died away. I went out with those who succored the wounded and mourned over the dead, and-1 found them—Corporal Jack and my boy comrade. They were side by side, and dead, but in his dying moments dear old Jack had thrown an arm over the poor boy, as if to shield and save him. Truly, those were the days when men’s hearts ached and women’s tears could not be dried.— Detroit Free Press.