Show decoration oration day stories in the course of the tha battle there occurred a pathetic incident showing that blood is thicker than water vater at one place on the mountain the dry leaves and brush began to burn and the creeping flames encircled many a poor fellow lying helpless and in agony on the ground the confederates at that portion of the line were ordered to cease firing and then one of their officers called to the federals F eder is and offered to suspend hostilities long enough to allow the removal of the disabled while the union soldiers bore their comrades t to the rear the confederates looked 0 on n and then the fighting was mutually renewed blue and gray AND SOUTH AFTER BATTLE I 1 I 1 in n the retreat the colonels headquarters wagon wagon was missing so BO they were all without rations save a stray hardtack or slice of bacon that some gome provident man still retained in his saddle pocket an incident occurred here that I 1 shall never forget and I 1 should like to know the name of the mun man and where he is now As I 1 lay there weary and in pain hungry and thirsty tv with no prospect of anything to eat before beare the morrow if then some one bent over me I 1 looked up and recognized my captor behind whom I 1 had ad ridden off the field he held in one hand a hardtack on which was a small piece e of bacon in the other a tin cup of hot coffee As he be handed banded it to me he said here pard you are as hungry as I 1 am and I 1 will divide with you was there ever an act that more fully denoted the true soldier to deny himself that he might relieve the suffering of one who but three hours before would have killed him in the line of duty or whom he be would have killed but now being in his power sought bought to show him every courtesy consistent with his duty with him and with all such euch as he hostilities ceased with surrender blue and gray grav TOLD BY MAJOR MCDOWELL it was waa the first day clay of the battle of gettysburg 7 we were in line of little battle on the north side of a knoll with our guns planted at the brow where they commanded perfectly any advancing body of the confederates after the battle had bad been raging for bome time our officers could see the enemy preparing for a charge the guns were double sh ott ed and the oder odder was given to wait until the confederates came within short abort range on came the line double quick until it was within less than one hundred yards of the muzzles of our guns there was a flash of flame a roar that shook the hills and valleys and when the smoke cleared away there seemed to be nothing but piles of dead and wounded our shot had mowed a tremendous gap in the line filled only by prostrate bodies quick as the movement could be executed however the advancing line was reformed in front of the windrow of bodies and elbow to elbow the charge was renewed they were so 80 near that we could see their faces and I 1 shall never forget the expression of courage and determination which it seemed to me I 1 could see as plainly as though we were face to face and which showed that they were either going to conqueror conquer or to be shot to death again our guns belched forth and again the whole line to a man seemed to go down A new windrow of the hundreds of dead and dying was made considerably in front of the former one like magic the line of the enemy formed again and again elbow to elbow in front of the piles of their fallen comrades those undaunted fellows came on even amid the smoke that was now clouding everything we could plainly see that terrible espres expression sion of desperate and tearless fearless courage which was wag almost as appalling to us as the decimation of their ranks must have been to them A third time our batter batteries leti poured forth their murderous fire and a third time the charging troops of the enemy disappeared but only to form again and they finally made it so hot for us that we were forced to withdraw to cemetery hill I 1 not conceive of a grander exhibition of coura courage e in battle than was exhibited by bv those those confederates each time it was almost certain death and yet vet not a mail seemed to waver the precision with which they reformed after the ferkul decimation of their ranks that follo followed weI each discharge of our guns was I 1 think the most marvelous thing that took place under my observation during the war |