United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Anecdotes
rear guard of the Union force and the Confederate's under General
Magruder in which the Confederates were defeated. The next day came the
battle of Glendale. Generals Longstreet and A. P. Hill commanded the
Confederate Army while the rear guard of the retreating Union forces
was made up of General McCall's division and that of General
Heintzelman and a part of the corps under General Sumner which had done
such gallant fighting the day before. It was a stern and stubborn
battle. If the Confederates could cut through the rear guard, they
would have the retreating army at their mercy. On the other hand, if
they could be held back, the main army would have time to occupy a
favorable position and entrench and could be saved. For a time it
seemed as if the Confederate attack could not be checked. Every
available man was called into action. Back at the rear were posted the
hospital corps where the sick and wounded lay. With them were stationed
the band and the drum-corps made up of drummer boys who were supposed
to keep out of actual fighting as much as possible. Among them was a
little Jewish boy named Benjamin Levy, who was only sixteen years old
and small for his age. Benjamin stayed back with the hospital while the
roar of the battle grew louder and louder. Finally there was a
tremendous chorus of yells and groans and shouts mingled with the
rattle of rifle-shots and the heavy thudding sounds which sabres and
bayonets make as they slash and pierce living flesh. Little groups of
wounded men came straggling back or were carried back to the hospital
and each one told a fresh story of the fierce fight which was going on
at the near-by front. Benjamin could stand it no longer. The last
wounded man that came in hobbled along with a broken leg, using his
rifle for a crutch. The boy helped him to a near-by cot and made him as
comfortable as he could.
"Now you lie quiet," he said, "until the doctor comes and I'll just
borrow this rifle of yours and do a little fighting in your place," and
Benjamin picked up the gun and slipped on the other's cartridge belt.
"Hi there, you come back with my gun," yelled the wounded man after
him. "That front's no place for kids like you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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