Maybe I'm mistaken in my older age, but I tend to believe that the generation of men who fought within the American Civil War were, by faith and culture, much closer to the spiritual world than we of today. They certainly seemed to look at the possibility of their own deaths in a more direct manner. And for many of them, if we can credit the numerous accounts that have survived by others, the premonition of that death was something of a common occurrance.
One such that has stuck in my mind came from an interchange between two commanders just before the actual battlefield death of one of them. The superior officer, a Union corps commander and major general at the time, sat his horse watching the brigades of one of his divisions passing in line towards the front, when he spied one of his favorite BC's, a colonel and one whom he had thought should have been a brigadier, once again and true to character, steadfastly leading his men forward. Moving himself closer to his friend the CC called out above the sound of impending battle, "_______, this will be your last fight without a star!" The colonel, looking up and recognizing his famed, former division commander and old acquaintance, called out, "Too late! This will be my last fight!" He was shot down ten minutes afterward.
Can anyone tell me who the two officers were?
_________________ General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC Union Army Chief of Staff Commander, Army of the Shenandoah Commander, Army of the Tennessee (2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)
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