The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 21, 1906, Page 8

A oHE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. : . - 3 —e———— % ay J b nearly all ke with a left it to be he at least est possible pral; he call for vol was issued they d is how A Ritter; Now, don’t I see it orised,” returned g, the F. “that t have n 20 soon.” face grew grave. “We i. ““We have e we are forgiven. It est—that we should » Stars and Stripes tten the Stars and is more pride than sorrow in And when the haughty ler set us the ex- who know the great twilight tales and legends do less than follow.” nesitated moment, his boyish g, and then addressed Mr. a u know—I have a Confederate He low- was my ned (he had been a Nor but Alice I have never £ n my life! Don't e has seen it before, but I d and went to room. parcel which spread a small battle- 1 and torn and tattered r! Yts colors were dimmed by time it was rent and scarred by the f battle—its edges frayed by the nds of four desperate years. “The blood of a kinsman made one of these many stéins,” said Nelson. “A shell made this gash at Fair Oaks—these bul- lets tore through in the Seven Days. Eere, and here, are the marks of Antle- tam.” His voice grew low and tense— he looked at the flag as if he had forgot- “When Pickett's ten thou- ten the others. sand charged on the last terrible day at Gettysburg this flag led the van—and one of my name and blood rode beside it. And when it recled back In defeat, for the first time—but not the last!—oh, not the last!<the fate of the Southern Con- cy was sealed! Where my father 1 this flag turned back that day marked righ tide of the rebellion! It flew af- many a losing fight—but after t was the symbol only of the old mission- aken men, ar It was just dapbreak when the sentries at the redoubt gave the alarm, and Com- pany A, in various stages of dishablille, crouched behind their earthworks and poured an accurate and murderous fire into a yellow mass of unerganized, half- i Er IO WU SHEP7 TP THE BLLL 7V 7HE ZE 7= Zoarmger: [ x armed Chinese. The vellow torrent was fire told of an attack on Ritter's. made by comparatively few men had beaten back, and the first sergeant A dense mass of infuriated Chinese been repulsed. scrambled upon the rampart, saying was swarming out of the town and firing The sergeant sent half of.the men to harsh things, ‘ndw through the half from behind every sheltered place at the dress at a time. At the moment when darkness to where a continued rifle little garrison. The attack on the house the second detachment returned, a howl- . up the slope to Ritter's. ing mob of Chinamen charged flercely But Company A hurled a pitiless, unceasing storm of lead into their crowded ranks, and the beslbged kept up a brisk fire, from the windows, and after a moment’s suspense the shouting, shrieking mass rolled down the hill again. After this repulse the little party in the missionary’s house tried to cross the intervening space between them and the fort, but every available gun In the rap- tdly swelling horde was turned upon them; one soldier and two of the three native servants were killed, and they were glad to turn back to the house again. - “We must go to them,” said the ser- geant. ~“Corporal, take Lieutenant Nel- son’s horse and notjfy Major Boone of our situation. It is twenty-five miles— you ought to bring help by night. You'll have to jump off the bluff and swim the river.” The corporal sped clattering on his way, and while they waited to see if he crossed the river safely Company A filled its knapsacks with ammunition n.n_d rations. When he led his horse up a winding trail on the further side they cheered him an then made a dash down the hill. They were greeted with a storm of fire and death. Seventy-five yards they went, then' faltered, stopped and fled back to {/the Tedoubt. In sixty ‘seconds they had lost seven killed and‘many more wounded—the bu- gler and two others so badly that they crawled back. The Chinese alm was vile and their anclent guns nearly worthless, otherwise Company A must have been killed to a man. “Flesh and blood ean't do jt,”” groaned the sergeant, and Company A gnashed its teeth in despair. The firipg dulled. apd the sergeant. tak- ing Nefsows ' glass, looked toward the mob; ‘which’seemed to be making prepa- rations for some new move. For'a mo- ment -he was puzzled—and then, *Good God,” he cried, “they’ll get The Boy this + time sure!” (Lieutenant Nelson was “The Boy.") The besiegers were forming under shel- ter of the town and speeding up the other side of the hill on which the Ritter dwell- ing stood, where the fire from the fort could not harm them. At this juncture Nelson's little party, seeing their position was untenable, aban- doned the house and ran up the fifty vards between it and the summit, seeking shelter among a number of bowlders on the crest. Lieutenant Nelson was the last to reach the haven of safety, and Company A mar- veled much to see that he had torn a rail from the rbalcony and was carrying it with him. “Now, what is that for?” growled Ser- geant Jennings. The answer was not long in coming. A moment later, just as the sun looked over the eastern mountains, the flag of the Confederacy, for the first time in thirty-five years, floated over a fleld of battle! A sound, which was less a cheer than a sob, burst from every throat. There was no word of command or counsel, -but, as,if in answer’ t6 ‘a summons ~which - there could be no denving, Company A sprang over the ramparts and charged gladly down to death. Down the green slope—swiftly—unfalter- ingly, not a man but felt death better than any turning back. A thousand mem- ories of the irrevocable past rose throng- i3 up to each and all. The bullets rained thick among them. .Men stumbled—fell—rose—and fell again. “The wounded fired whers they dropped, till death found them—and somewhere above all the din and thunder rose the strains of “Dixie.” It was the wounded bugler left behind them in the redoubt. Look away! Look away! Look away down South to Dixie. They reached the bottom, and at the sergeant’'s command went in skirmish or- der—one half retreating while the other fired into the ranks of the Chinese, now close behind them; then in their turn passing on up the hill while their com- rades Kkept up the unequal fight; and so came at last to The Boy and the wel- come shelter of the rocks. But the dead bodies of twenty of their number marked thelr course. They were just in time. Even as they dropped breathless on “the summit the main body of Chinese, frantic with rage, came In view on the further slope of the hill. For five horrible minutes of sicken- ing suspense Comipany A poured volley after volley into them at point-blank range, till the baffled foe fled panic- stricken before their deadly aim. The cowardly Orientals had learned to fear this formidable handful of desperate men now. They turned in flendish glee to the three wounded soldiers in the redoubt, who were lying in plain view on the top of the powder magazine. All eyes were turned to them—and it was seen that one of them was signaling with a wig-wag flag. Five hundred yellow devils ran shouting up the hill, and this is what was “Save your shots- we will fire powder.” A cheer blew across the valley—Hark! The bugler again! High and clear as the triumphant demons came closer—a hun- ¥ dred and fifty yards—a hundred-fifty— Tse gwine back to Dixie, I'se «wine back to Dixie! My beart's turned back to Dixie; I can’t stay here no longer— Company A stood bareheaded and prayed to the God it had scoffed: ——1 hear dem childfen calling. I see dem sad tears falling: My heart's turned back to Dixle, ‘And I—must ot The Boxers swarmed over the wall. An appalling sound as of a thousand thunderbolts—a spurt of fame and fite —a cloud of dust and smoke that hid the startled sky from the trembling earth—and where there had been a green hillside there was now a black- ened, desolate heap of torn,earth and stones and mangled corpses—while a few mutilated, terrified survivors limped down the hillL Before the smoke had cleared away, the Boy’'s soldlerly eye had seen ths opportunity to strengthen his position before the terror and confusion of the enemy subsided. A few brief orders were given, and the men worked as they had never worked before. Jennings with ten men ran down .to the house and brought back water, food and tocls for entrenchment. They divided In squads, working flve minutes each. They first made a deep sheltgr for the women, and then threw up slender ridge of earth from rock to rock; those not working keeping up a steady fire, replied to in increasing vol- ume by the Chinese. And so theeary day ;wore .0n.. And all the .day the Stars_ and Bars. floated over the boys in"blue. If, fn its brief and stormy past, that flag had ever stood, In part for any in- justice or wrong, en this day of days it stood for naught save love and Honer Surely, ,surely, the angel of wrath, though he looked with exultation when that flag when down, defeated, in the dust and smoke of a thousand battles, yet thrilled with pride and tears and Jus-té see ite. pilken folds flung to the winds;again!’ Thrite that long, long day a yellow wave swept up the hill to the little ramparg; and thrice the dauntless valor of its defenders made the stubborn circle good. And with each wave brave men gave thelr souls ungrudgingly to God; and the little garrison grew less and less. The women bound up wounds and gave drink to dying lips; but none complained, none murmured. At each onset The Boy and Ritter fought in the foremost ranjk: each setting an example of deadly, gés- perate courage. And ever as the flood rolled baekward, writhing in defeat, The Boy looked up to the faded colors that flew deflantly in the sun, as If to fn voke the memories of the mighty dead, They built in corpses, white and yellow, in their meager wall; they stripped the dead of cartridge belts, and the wounded and dying loaded fresh rifies for the thinning number that kept the foe at bayy «And the longed-for night came on apace. "The' sun was nearly down when Ser- “geant Jennings got his death wound. He said no word, but with his last strength walked slowly to a low place in the wall and lal!d his bleeding body in the gap. It was done so simply and so much as & matter of course that in the pitch to which the men’s nerves were strung, !t seemed a perfectly natural action, calling for no protest; and when in the next lull The Boy went to him, his gallant soul had gone to its own place. A dense throng rushed up the hill for a last .charge; and the few feeble survivors braced themselves for a final effort. They rolled huge bowlders down the ‘hill into the shrieking, seething mass; they loaded every gun and emptied them into the frantic mob—but they came on—on though they fell llke wheat—and the foremost were over the rampart. A flerce, short struggle—clubbed musket against sword and . knife; thrusting, striking, stabbing, swaying —then—the thunder of horses” feet— the crash qof regular volleying —the ringing Anglo-Saxon cheer! Help has come, and the ignoble hosts fled In fear, while the long range rifles exacted fearful vengeance from them. And the rescuers, English and Ameri- can, looked and wondered, while Union Jack and Old Glory were lowered once and again in reverence to a fallen and discredited flag. They came to the rampart, over slope slippery with blood, strewn with corpses, trampled into mire by a thou- sand feet. Two weeping women Kr beside the prostrate form of the old missionary. Five weary, wounded. powder blackened soldiers stood grim- 1y at attention. A bare-headed man. covered with blood and dust, saluted with a broken sword, and said: - “Sir—I have the honor to report—" ‘The blood gushed to his lips; he turned to where, in the last rays of the sun. the Banner of the Lost Cause waved n triumph over its last battlefleld—smiled —and fell. The roldier h‘ carried his report to Ged! They buried him as was fitting and proper—his ragged flag around him, his broken sword in his hand. There Mv many men who sleep so for that flag— many swords that have been broken In its defense—none better, none braven than these. (Copyrizht by the S. 8. MeoClupy OW