Thursday, March 26, 2015

Israel O. Gaskill.

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Israel O. Gaskill, was of the Sixty-Fifth, Ohio Co. B, he was part of Sherman's Brigade.  The following pages were taken from (The Story of Sherman's Brigade.)

Page 491, Israel O. Gaskill was a recruit who had enrolled himself in Company B, Sixty-fifth, just as the company was to start for the rendezvous, at the expiration of the furlough. He had tried hard to get in before, but was too young. This he thought would be his last chance and he ran away from home to enlist Gaskill felt very proud when he started from Nashville with the regiment, with a musket on his shoulder and all the paraphernalia of a soldier strapped and buckled about him.

He had not drilled a single hour, but he marched with his gun at a right-shoulder-shift, in strict accordance with the tactics, as far as he knew anything about it. After the column was well drawn out the usual order "Rout step!" was given. This meant, in the phrase of the pi ent day, "go-as- you please," each man being free to take his own and carry his musket and aecouterments in whatever manner he chose . But Gaskill  didn't know anything about this and he trudged along with strict military precision , "Didn't ye hear the order 'Rout step?'" said one of the boys. "That means ye can carry yer gun any way ye want to." "That's jest exackly what I'm doin " !" replied Israel.

Page 529, Just before going into the fight, on the 14th, while the Sixty- fifth was awaiting orders, Israel O. Gaskill, of Company B, was leaning against a tree, evidently in a meditative mood. As before mentioned, he was a recruit, and had been at the front but a week. His father's given name was Abraham. "Well, Gaskill*" said one of his comrades, what are you thinking about ?"  "I was thinking I'd like to be in Abraham's bosom!" was the answer.  But raw as he was a mere boy, Gaskill proved to be of the right stuff, through all the fighting that followed, to the end of the war.

Page 661, Israel O. Gaskill, of Company B, Sixty-fifth. In the wild scamper for the works he found himself directly in front of the Sixth battery, the guns of which were double-shotted, and men stood grasping the lanyards, impatient for the word to fire. Between the cannon, the parapet bristled with the muskets of the One Hundred and Fourth Ohio, loaded and cocked, with a finger upon every trigger. It was impossible for Gaskill to get over the intrenchment, and he could only drop into the ditch and wait for an opportunity to scale: the works.

In an instant the parapet was ablaze with musketry and the artillery was belching canister. The rebels pressed tor ward, going down by scores before the fiery blast. Dead men fell upon Gaskill until he was literally covered by corpses. When the assailants recoiled he shouted Lustily for assistance. His cries heard by Captain Benjamin F. Trescott, of the Sixty-fifth, and Captain Aaron P. Baldwin, of the battery, who, with one or two men, leaped the works, lifted off the bodies, and rescued him ironi his most unpleasant predicament. Stained with blood and grime, but unhurt, Gaskill was overjoyed to find himself free, and sprang nimbly over the parapet.

Authors note.  To read more about him and his family take this link.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=gaskill&GSfn=israel&GSmn=o&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=15982442&df=all&

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