Sword and Pen: Ventures and Adventures of Willard GlazierOwens, John Algernon
History
Sword and Pen: Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier
Owens, John Algernon
Glazier, Willard W., 1841-1905; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
Kilpatrick's men met the assault manfully, retiring slowly, until at
length, upon the brow of a small hill, they turned at bay, and for a
time formed a living rampart between their retreating comrades and the
enemy. Every attempt to approach and penetrate their line proved instant
death to their assailants, and General Stuart, seeing no chance of
otherwise dislodging them, determined to charge in person, and crush
them with an entire division. Glazier, who had already emptied two
saddles, sat coolly upon his horse, reloading as this formidable body
came sweeping down. By this time, experience of the vicissitudes of a
soldier's career, and possibly the fact that he had hitherto been very
fortunate in the numerous conflicts in which his regiment had been
engaged, left him quite composed under fire. Singling out one of
Stuart's men, he covered that cavalier with his revolver, and probably,
in another instant, would have ended his career; but, just as his finger
gave the final pressure upon the trigger, his horse, riddled with
bullets, fell dead under him, the shot flew wide of its mark, and he
fell to the ground.
[Illustration: Cavalry-fight At New Baltimore--lieutenant Glazier
Taken Prisoner.]
His first sensation was of a dense cloud between himself and the sky,
and next of being crushed by tramping hoofs, whole squadrons of horse
passing over his body as he lay prone and helpless. A vague, dreamy
sensation of being a mass of wounds and bruises was succeeded by utter
darkness and oblivion. How long he continued in this comatose state he
never knew. Raised from the ground, a terrible sense of acute bodily
pain gradually crept over him, as he found himself hurried along at a
rapid pace. Where he was going, who had him in charge, what he had done,
whether he was in this or some other world, were matters of which he
had no more conception than the dead charger he had ridden. Pain, pain,
nothing but intense pain, absorbed the whole of his faculties. Gradually
his full consciousness returned. He remembered the fierce onset of the
enemy, his fall from his horse, and at once concluded that he was a
prisoner in the hands of the enemy! Very soon after, he discovered that,
in addition to being deprived of his arms, he had been stripped of his
watch and other valuables.
One of the great annoyances to which a newly captured prisoner was
subjected, arose from the fact that skulkers and sneaks, in order to
secure safe positions, coveted and sought the privilege of quartering
them. In his own words Glazier says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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