The boys of the 71st and the negro troopers of the 10th did not treat
the X—— men tenderly as they passed over them. They jumped down upon
them as they lay in the ditch and tramped upon them or kicked them out
of the way contemptuously, while the fear-smitten creatures were as
unresentful as hounds. Corporal Graham, near the left flank of the 10th,
heard an officer of the 71st yell as they passed over the ditch, "Why
don’t you go forward? What the devil are you waiting for?" to which
Billie Catling, as he knocked a cowering X—— man from his path, cried
out in answer, "It’s too hot for ’em, captain. They are going to stay
here till this hell freezes over!"
As many perhaps as a fourth of the 1st X——, officers and men, fell in
with the 71st and the 10th and bravely charged with them up the long
slope. The remainder waited till the battle was so far ahead of them
that their belated advance could not wipe out the black shame of
cowardice.
In the hurry of their rush into the breach the adjoining flanks of the
10th and the 71st overlapped and were confused; but it was well that the
two regiments were sent to replace the one, for the loss was appalling
as they surged forward toward the German lines, and they were not long
in being thinned out to an uncrowded basis.
The first sight of a man struck and falling to the ground shook Corporal
Graham’s nerves, and he had to pull himself together sharply to save
himself from the weakening horror death always had for him. He turned
his eyes resolutely away from the first half-dozen, that were knocked
down, and applied himself religiously and consciously to the prescribed
method of advancing by rushes; but all his faculties were alert to the
dangers of the situation, and he could not shake off his keen sense of
peril and of the tragedies around him. Not for long did he suffer thus,
however, for as he rose up from the grass for one rush forward a bullet
grazed his shin—and changed his whole nature in a twinkling. It did him
no real damage and little blood came from the wound, but the pain was
intense. He dropped on the earth and grabbed his leg to see what the
harm was, and was surprised to find himself uninjured save for the
burning, stinging sensation. Then he forgot everything but his pain,
and became as pettishly angry in a moment as if he had collided with a
rocking-chair in the dark. In that moment he conceived a personal
enmity and grudge against the whole German army, and proceeded to avenge
his injury on a personal basis. He became as cool and collected as if
he were playing a game of checkers, and went in a business-like way
about reducing the distance between himself and the gentlemen who had
hurt his shin. His anger had dissolved his confusion and neutralized
the horrors that were at first upon him. He was more than ever
conscious of the falling men about him; but he had his debt to pay,—let
them look after their own scores. He saw Lieutenant Wagner stagger and
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