.
This he declined to do, whereupon the lieutenant called in several
of his men, formed them in line, took out his watch and said to
the colonel, "You are an old gray-headed man, and I dislike to kill
you, but if you don't give up that sword in five minutes, I shall
order these men to blow your brains out." When the time was up
_the Colonel still refused to surrender._ A sudden tumult at the
door, caused by some prisoners attempting to escape, called the
lieutenant off for a moment. When he returned the colonel had
given his sword to a girl in the house who had asked him for it,
and she secreted it between two mattresses. He was then marched
to the rear, but being negligently guarded, escaped the same night
and returned to his regiment.

Another occurrence recalls Browning's celebrated poem of "An Incident
at Ratisbon." An officer of the 6th Wisconsin approached Lieutenant-
Colonel Dawes, the commander of the regiment, after the sharp fight
in the railroad cut. The colonel supposed, from the firm and erect
attitude of the man, that he came to report for orders of some
kind; but the compressed lips told a different story. With a great
effort the officer said, _"Tell them at home I died like a man and
a soldier."_ He threw open his breast, displayed a ghastly wound,
and dropped dead at the colonel's feet.

Another incident was related to me at the time, but owing to our
hurried movements and the vicissitudes of the battle, I have never
had an opportunity to verify it. It was said that during the
retreat of the artillery one piece of Stewart's battery did not
limber up as soon as the others. A rebel officer rushed forward,
placed his hand upon it, and presenting a pistol at the back of
the driver, directed him not to drive off with the piece. The
latter did so, however, received the ball in his body, caught up
with the battery and then fell dead.

We lay on our arms that night among the tombs at the Cemetery, so
suggestive of the shortness of life and the nothingness of fame;
but the men were little disposed to moralize on themes like these
and were too much exhausted to think of anything but much-needed
rest.

CHAPTER V.
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG--THE SECOND DAY.

The ridge upon which the Union forces were now assembling has
already been partially described. In two places it sunk away into
intervening valleys. One between Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill;
the other lay for several hundred yards north of