Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1841-04-24
by Masser l. Eisely.

| Sir Robert Wilson's Memories
Perhaps no night was ever so awful,
no occasion ever excited higher inte>
rest. The contact of the adverse an
mies--the importance of their character
| and objects---the fates that awaited
their achievepnonts-the events that de-
pended on them-the presence 100000
men, impatient for mutual slaughter
the wintry wildness of the scene, faint
ly cheered by the partial fires. on whose
blaze the darkness of the storm rested,
| and whose flames exposed to view the
shivering groups extended around
knowledge Of the Russian sufferance--
commisseration oftheir helpless distress
anxiety for their fate--all these kept
Enclosed the wearied eye and oppressed
the mind with variety and weight of
thought.
Scene after the battle from Ihe same.
During the suspension of movements,
a few moments were afforded to con>
template the field of battle, and never
did & e-:errible spectacle present it.
self. Fifty thousand brave men since
sunrise killed and wounded, and great
part, being struck by cannon shot, ex-
posed still On the ground, without the
means, without the hope ofsuccor. Near
fifty Thousand more worn out with fa-
tigue and exhausted with hunger, were
unable to keep the field, and about to
abandon their mangled comrades, who
were imploring their assistance and
protection.
.- The Prussians had provisions; but the
Russians had no other sustenance than
the frozen snow. Their wants had in
duced numbers during the battle to
search for food in the adjoining villages,
and the plain was covered by foraging
parties, passing and rcpassing.
The French left $50 of their own
wounded, and $50 Russians, under the
care Of two surgeons, but without in>
struments or means of dressing, without
provisions, and with dead bodies inter-
mingled in almost every, room. The
burgomaster Of Landsberg declared
that 10000 wounded had passed ihrn'
| this town. Although the soldiery and
peasantry had, since the battle, been
continually employed in burying the
dead, the ground was still covered with
human carcasses; and parts OF the road
towards Landsberg were literally pa
we'd with frozen and encrusted bodies,
which the returning cannonwheels had
rather splintered than lacerated.
Scene at Heilsbers, from the same.
The cannon thundered, and the mus
kerry rolled, Illuminating the atmos-
phere with continued flame, till gradu-
ally the combat relaxed, and the Russ
sian lines re-ascended to their position.
| A little before ten at night, deserter
came over 10 the Russians, and inform
ed the general that another assault was
preparing from the wood. Suitable
arrangements had scarcely been made,
when the dark bodies of the columns
were seen sweeping forward. Again
the batteries were opened, and the fury
of the battle again ragged; but the as
sailants, unable to force the progress
fled back wrecked and almost annihila
ted. The action became then feeble
| anu dDOut CiCNCu y CiOCh ttC StChlf
along their line of tiralleurs, shouted
"arretez le combat" (cease the action,
when this scene closed, and the massa'
, ere terminated; but the cessation of thu
, tumultuous uproar of war was followed
: by melancholy din-the groans of thu
wounded, who, anticipating the NOR
, rcs%'s renewal of the fight, or torture'
! by pain, in vain implored removal, re
/, lief. and even death.
Heavy rain fell in the early part o
/ the night, which rendered the groun
!, exceedingly slippery, and the troop
n experienced much distress. When high
n broke, the French were arrayed in or
e der of battle; but spectacle, indescr
n badly disgusting, engaged attentlo
more than the hostile dispositions.
gl The ground between the wood an
/. the Russian batteries, about a quartz
IN of mile, was sheet of naked huma
" bodies, which friends and foes had dl
4. ring the night mutually stripped, nj
v leaving the worst rag upon them, a
= though numbers of these bodies still rt
h tained consciousness Of their situatio
a 1t was a sight that the eye loathed, b,
" from which it could not remove.