Miscellany.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 443, 19 October 1880, Page 3

Miscellany.

CHARGING THE BATTLE LINE

(Detroit Free . Press.)

Orer on thd right our infantry were falling back, and the centre could hardly hold its grouudV The enemy could spare two brigades and still push our right. They were now bringing thorn up under cover of the woods to hud them at our left. AH our troops wore in action and men died on the battle lino with the dogged determination not to give an inch of ground. Now there ia a lull. No need to tell ft soldier what it meane. The encm) is changing his battle-line so as to include the reinforcements coming up. Murder takes rest for a lew minutes. An aide-de-camp dashes up and inquires for tho oflicer in command, lie rides down the line to the colonel. Our regiment is all alone here, and we are less than 700 men in the saddle. Away goes the aide, and as the colonel turns in his saddle to look over the men we can see that he wears a pale face What was the order ? It was for that lone regiment to swing around the corner of the woods and hurl itself against tho enemy coming up ! Was it a blunder t r was the order born in the grim despair gnawing at the commanding general's heart ai» he felt the battle going against him ? If any man kiio'ra he has never spoken. The colonel hesitated just a moment. Hβ had seen a hundred saddles emptied that day, nnd now 700 men wero to be matched against 8000! " Forward!" Wβ in the lino did not know where until we turned the woods, and halted to dress the lines. Half a mile away, and coming forward in battle line, were the two brigades. There were stumps here and there in the field, and the fruit was ripe on a dozen scattering cherry trees. There was no order to unsling carbines, we wore going to iigbt with the sabre alone. Faces grew pale, teeth shut together hard, and then tho silence of death settled upon the little band. " Forward !" "Trot!" " Gallep 1" "Charge!" Aye! wo are not mutes after all! Vi! yi! yi! comes the yell, and we all take it up. Sabree are flashing, horses rushing, and troopers shouting, and there is an exhilaration in the moment which lifts men in their stirrups. Will they form a square ? No ! They shout in derision as 700 men ride down upon 80001 They halt, and the front rank drops to its knees, and the rear rank takes steady aim. I am in the front rank of our charging line, and I can see every movement. I wish it was over. It does not seem possible that one of us will be alive after their lirst volley. There will be a grand crash, a sheet of llaine, and the maelstrom of death will have drawn us to earth. Nearer—nearer! I hear their officers commanding them to be cool. Nearer — here is tho crash—the flame—the smoke— the cheers and groans! Now we are upon them ! Our horses strike tho line like a great wave which cannot be stayed nor turned aside. 1 see men under foot—they jab at me with bayonets, they strike at me with clubbed muskets. Bugles sound, officers shout—sabres ring , —muskets crash and men live through it to to pass beyond out of the smoke-cloud. We have broken thair iinos and confused them. They are not retreating, but they are disorganised for a moment. We can hear their officers shouting orders, and • j there is a pop ! pop ! pop ! of musketry l '.aroundus.

" Bally on the centre !"

Every horae knows and obeys the call. Under the smoke we re-form. The trooper at my left is leaning forward in hie saddle, sabre gone and both hands clutching his horse's mane. There is blood on his bare head and bronze face, and a bayonet has given him a horrible wound in the leg. Tbe three horses beyond me on the right hare empty saddles, yet here they are, ready to charge back again ! " Vi! yi! yi!" Here wo go again ! Who leads us I do not know. What we are charging I cannot soe. It is only a minute before I see bayonets and men in line, and then comes the aliocL No man could tell you what takcs-placo in.that brief moinont. It is a horrjble nightmare of flame and binoke ans§blood and death. - We are scarcely through our battle line before we wheel to the left and strike another, Tho trooper who was at my left side is missing. Thero are the three riderless horsee on one side and two on the other. They keep pace with mine. They rear and fling themselves against tlio line, striking with their feet, and screaming like wild beasts as the bayonets prick them. Now to the right, and wo dash through a line—now in a short half-circle and men are knocked down and trampled under £i)ot—now straight ahead, and we follow the single bugle call back to the cover of the woods from whence we started thirty minutes before. There is a heavy smokecloud down where we fought, and under it covers the enemy is trjing to reorganise It is too late. Our infantry line of battle has advanced half a mile, our batteries have socured better positions, and the enemy must fall back along its line, or be flanked and crushed. Whore is our Colonel ? Dead under one of the cherry trees. Our major ? Killed as we charged the first line. Five of our captains ? Stark and stiff down thero in the clover patch. Eight lieutenants ? Dead where the bluecoats are thickest. Where are the troopers who sat in these blood-stained saddles ? When the enemy draw offs we shall ride ovor the field and count nearly 200 rank and file of the brave old —th, who sleep their long sleep their fingers will be clenched in agony— their eyes wide open—the grass beneath them saturated with blood, and their parted lips will seem to ask of uh :

•' Have we died for aught which Christian men could not hare peacefully settled in peaceful voice ? "