Sewickley Herald

              Herald
The Sewickley Valley's Home-News Weekly
Vol. XXVII.   No. 29.
SEWICKLEY, PA., THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1930
Price 5 cents.
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(Livil   Wat   Memories
LIEUT.  DAVID   SHIELDS
Aide-de-Camp to General Alex. Hays
Mustered in Oct. 5, 1861 at age of 17
Three times wounded
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CAPTAIN DAVID SHIELDS TODAY
Civil War Veteran, very much alive at 86
(Photo hy Diehl)
WILLIAM CHAPLIN SHIELDS
Oo. Or. 28th Pennsylvania Volunteers
Killed at Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863
Brother of Capt. David Shields
lyjBMOBIAL DAY tomorrow brings
*"our thoughts back to Civil War
days, although it is, as it should bc, a
day for honoring the memory of tho
veterans of all wars. Ancl to bring
back the memories of 1861-65, it is well
worth whilo to got Captain David
Shields, almost tho only Civil War veteran now living in this vicinity, to
l'ciiiinisco a bit about his experiences
in that groat conflict. Ho will bc 86
years old next Friday, Juno 6th, but
Ms memory is cloar, he is fairly activo
and greatly interested in tho things
of today, especially in his invention
of a fertilizing agont which has shown
wonderful possibilities under his experiments on his grounds at tho Shiolds
homestead, and ho can toll most interestingly of tho days of tho War of tho
Rebellion, in which ho had oxcoptional
opportunity to sco what was going on
nnd to know tho porsoualitios of many
of tho mon who shaped tho fighting.
Enlisting at the ago of i7, his ilrst
promotion camo aftor a littlo affair in
the Whito Oak swamps of thd Chicka-
hominy near Fair Oaks, when his eompany was preventing any possible advance of tho enemy at one point and
had doployod under such cover as was
available at the edge of tho swamp.
Ho found a good shelter at tho end of
the lino, aftor ascertaining that tho
swamp on his loft was impassable, and
collecting three rifles from men who
had been killed, ho had a comfortable
spot behind a water-trough or something of the sort and saw no reason to
retreat when his captain (Captain Reid,
father of Judge Ambroso J. Reid)
shouted to him to como back. Ordered
to rotroat at last, ho found himself honored as "tho last man to loavo tho
line," and, declining a captaincy, was
made a corporal. That was in Juno,
1862; advanced to sergeant in September, lie was soon made Second Lieutenant and on January 7,1S03, by special order was dotailod as personal aido-
do-camp to General Aloxandor Hays,
with whom ho served until his discharge.
July 1, 1863, Gon. Hays's command
was marching at top speed up from
Virginia to Gettysburg, where thc crucial battle of the war had begun that
day; July 2nd it had taken position iu
the sector just north of the spot now
marked as "the High Tide of the Rebellion, '' familiar to all of us who
havo visited that battlefield as most
Sewickley people have. There near tho
present cemetery General Hays established the 'blue trefoil flag whieh marked his position, and there, on that ridge
in the midst of continual sharpshoot-
ing and firo from the Confederate artillery on Seminary Ridge opposite, it
Avas Capt. Shields'a duty to go back
and forth with orders and messages to
tho other generals on the field. There
aTso came othor generals to confer with
General Hays, in Capt. Shields's hearing; General Meade, in supremo command, General Hancock, commander of
tlio Second Corps, General Hunt, in
command of all tho artillery. During
that day and the next tho flro was
heavy, and Captain Shields had plonty
of chnueo to see thc mottle of tho dif
ferent officers in that part of tho field.
The trefoil flag was missing, and
Shields, sent out to find it, found its
bearer, witli plenty of company, down
under a strong log barn on tho Tauey-
town road, whence an officer with much
violent language was driving them out.
Ordered to go along tho lino and ro-
port how things wero going, Captain
Shields says, "I kept my horse sort
of jiggling as I went—you didn't daro
stand still a moment, because of the
sharpshooters.'' Ho found one general,
"a West Point graduato, too," standing with his horse in front of him, all
his mon lying close to tho ground wishing they had also had horses to protect
them. "Ho wasn't inspiring his mon,"
said Captain Shields; and ho was
ashamed to report this fact to General
Hays. By contrast, whon word camo
from a captain that his men, deployed
in tho open as skirmishers, wero hard
pressed and must fall back if reinforcements wero not sent, General Hays
rode out among them, with his trefoil
flag and his whole field staff, unmindful
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