- Joined
- Jul 23, 2017
- Location
- Southwest Missouri
look! Do you see that? A puff of smoke in mid-air"! Very small, and miles away, as the faint and long-coming " boom" of the exploding shell indicates; but it means that something is going on yonder, away down in the valley, in which, perhaps, we may have a hand before the day is done. See! another —and another!
Faint and far away comes the long-delayed " boom!" " boom!" echoing over the hills, as the staff-officer dashes along the lines with orders to "double-quick! double-quick!" Four miles of almost constant double-quicking is no light work at any time, least of all on such a day as this memorable first day of July, for it is hot and dusty.
But we are in our own State now, boys, and the battle is opening ahead, and it is no time to save breath. On we go, now up a hill, now over a stream, now checking our headlong rush for a moment, for we must breathe a little. But the word comes along the line again," double-quick," and we settle down to it with right good-will, while the cannon ahead seem to be getting nearer and louder.
There's little said in the ranks, for there is little breath for talking, though every man is busy enough thinking.
We all feel, somehow, that our day has come at last — as indeed it has!
Recollections of a Drummer Boy