The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-20 00:00:00

UP TREE.

I had now been in the tree some two hours, and
all this time a continuous stream of wounded were
being carried past me to the rear. The soldiers
would cross their muskets, placing their wounded
companion across, slowly carry them past ; another
soldier would have a wounded man with his arm
around his neck, slowly walking back, and then
two men would be bearing a mortally-wounded
comrade in their arms, who was in convulsions and
writhing in his last agonies. These were to me the
most affecting scenes I witnessed, and I could hardly
keep back the tears, while I could look upon the
dead unmoved. Picking a couple of persimmons as
a remembrance, I descended the tree, startling two
soldiers leaning against it, by requesting them to
move their guns so that I could get down. They
looked up in astonishment at hearing a voice, and
uo doubt their first thought was that I might be a
Secessionist spy, but the " U. S." on my belt, and
my anxious inquiries after their regiment, soon re-
assured them. Leaving the tree, I went along over
the field to the left, the bullets whistling about me,
and the cannon balls ploughing up the ground in
every direction, when I came across two of our men
with a prisoner, who said he belonged to a South
Carolina regiment. I asked him some questions, but
he was dogged and silent, and did not appear to be
disposed to reply to my inquiries. The shot fell so thick
and shells bursting around me, I hardly knew which
way to turn. A musket-ball whizzed past my ear so
near that I felt the heat and, for a moment, thought I
was hit. The ground was strewn with broken guns,
swords, cartridge boxes, blankets, haversacks, gun-
carriages, together with all the paraphernalia of
warfare, mingled with the dead and wounded men.
I saw here a horse and his rider under him, both
killed by the same cannon ball. Seeing a small
white house still towards the left, with a well near
it, I started for some water and, getting over a wall,
I discovered lying beside it a number of our dead,
with their haversacks drawn over their faces. I
lifted the cover from their faces, thinking, perhaps,
I might come across some of my friends, but they
were all strangers, or so disfigured that I could not
recognise them. I went to the well for a drink, and
as I drew near the house I heard loud groans, and
such a scene as was there presented, in that little
houso of two rooms, and on the grass around it, was
enough to appal the stoatest heart. The rooms were
crowded, and I could not get in ; but all around on.
the grass were men mortally wounded. I should
think there were at least forty on that green sward,
within twenty rods of the house, and such wounds
—some with both legs shot off, some with a thigh
shot away, some with legs broken, others with
horrid flesh wounds made from shells. I saw one
man with a wound in his back large enough to put
in my fist ; he was fast bleeding to death. They
lay so thick around me that I could hardly step
between them, and every step was in blood. As 1
walked among them some beseeched me to kill
them and put an end to their agony ; some were
just gasping, and some had died since they had
been brought there, and the dying convulsions of
these strong men were agonising in the extreme.
Some were calling for the surgeon, but the hos-
pital was more than a mile off, and there ware but
two surgeons here. I left the house, and bore off
to the right, towards some of the low pine woods,
about a hundred rods distant, and scattered along
were the dead bodies of our men. On reaching the
wood I found the ground literally covered with the
corpses of the enemy, and I counted in the space of
ten rods square forty-seven dead Southerners, and
ten mortally wounded; and scattered all through
the woods still farther back were•any number more.
I talked with several of the wounded, and they told
me they belonged to the Eighth Georgia Regiment,
Colonel Bartow, and had arrived at Manassas from
Winchester the day before, there they had been.
with General Johnston. They told me their whole
regiment was posted in this pine wood. One young
man teld me he was from Macon, and that his
father was a merchant. I asked another where he
was from ; he replied defiantly, " I am for disunion.
—opposed to you." This man had both thighs
broken. I heard one of our soldiers ask a wounded
Georgian if their orders were to kill our wounded.
He answered, "No." Our soldiers carried water to
these wounded men, and as they writhing in agony
a cup of water was put within their reach. The
convulsions of one of these was awful to look upon;
he appeared to have been shot in the lungs, as he
vomited blood in large quantities, and in his
struggles for breath would throw himself clear from
the ground. I noticed among the heap of bodies an
officer dressed in light blue uniform, with green
stripes on his pants, a fine looking man whom I
took to be a captain. I also saw one of our soldiers
take sixty dollars from the body of a dead Georgian;
and their knives, revolvers, &c., were appropriated
the same way. This I looked upon as legitimate
plunder for the soldiers, but as a citizen 1 forebore
to take anything from the field.—Letter in the
Boston Traveller.