Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1845-10-02

Massena and his battalions.-Then these saw
age solitudes shook Ia the thunder of the
cannon and the roar Of the musketry. The
startled avalanche came leaping from the
heights, mingling its sullen thunder with the
roar OF the battle. The frightened chamois
paused on the high precipce TO catch the
strange uprOar that filled the hills. The sim
pie hearted peasantry saw their green pastur-
ages covered with battling armies, and the
snow capped height crimson with the blood
oil men. Whole companies fell like snow
wreaths from the rocks, while the artillery
piowed through dense mass of human flesh
that darkened the gorge below. For ten sue
cessive days had these armies marched and
comba,ted; and yet here on the eleventh,
they struggled with undated resolution. I'm
able TO force the passage to Naeiels, Suwar-
row took the desperate and awful resolution
of leading his weary and wounded army over
! the mountains into the Grisons.
Imagine, il you can, an awful solitude of
mountains, and precpices, glaciers piled one
above another in savage grandeur. Cast your
eye up one OF these mountains, $500 feet a.
bove the level of the sea, along whose bosom,
IN zlS-zag line, goes narrow path, wind
ing over the precipices and snow fields It'll
hHoiI ioSt ou thC UiStiut SliIllllt. I'D That
difficult path, and into the very heart of those
fearful snow-peaks, was the bold Russian re-
solved to lead his $4,000 men.
To increase the difficulties that beset him.
ana rendered his destruction apparently in
evilable, the snow fell on the morning he
set out, two feet deep, celebrating all traces
OF the path, and forming as it were winding
sheet for his army. In single file and with
heavy hearts, that mighty hos, one after anoth-
er, entered the snow drifts and began the as
cent. Only few miles could be made the
first day, and al night, without even tree to
k!ndle for a light around their silent bivouacs.
the army lay down in the snow, the Anime
crags around them Tor their senlimels. The
next day the head of the column reached the
summit of the ridge, and 10! what scene
was spread out before them No one who
has not stood on an Alpine summit can have
any conception of the utter dreariness of this
| region. The mighty mountains, as far as the
eye can reach, lean along the solemn sky,
while the deep silence around is broken by
the sound of no living thing Only now and
then the voice Of the avalanche is heard
speaking in lis low thunder tone from the
depth of an awful abyss, or The scream of
solitary eagle circlng round some lofty crag.
The bold Russian stood and gazed long and
anXlously on this scene, and then turned to
look on his Struggling army, that, far as the
eye could reach, wound like Il huge anaconda
over the white surface of the snow. No
column OF smoke arose in the desert wild TO
cheer the sight, but all was silent, mourn
| iul and prophetic. The winding sheet of the
army seemed unrolled before them. No path
guided their footsteps, and ever and anon a
bayonet and feather disappeared together, as
some poor soldier slipped off the edge of a
precIP!ce and fell into the abyss below. Hun
dreds overcome and dsheartened, or exhaust.
ed with their previous wounds, laid down TO
die, while the cold wind. as it swept by, soon
wrought snow shroud for their forms.
The descent on the southern side was
worse than the ascent. freezing wind had
hardened the snow into crust, so that il fire.
quently bore the soldiers. Their bayonets
were thrust into it, to keep them from slim
ping, and the weary and worn creatures were
compelled TO struggle every step 70 prevent
oelng borne away over the precipices that al
most momentariy stopped their passage.
Yet even this precautIon was often vain.
Whole companies would begin to slide to-
gether, and despite Of every effort would
sweep with a Shrek over the edge of the pre-
cIPlce, and disappear in the unrodden CULTS
below. Men saw their comrades, by whose
side they fought in many battle, shoot one
after another over the dizzy verge, striking
with their bayonets as they went, TO stay their
progress. The beasts of burden slipped from
above and rolling down on the ranks below.
shot away in wild confusion, men and all. in
to the chasm that yawned at their feet.
As they gradually advanced, the enemy an
Peared around OH the precipices, pouring a |
scattering yet destructive fire on the strug-
Cling multitude. Such sight these Alpine
soltudes never saw-such march no army
ever made before. In looking at this pass
the traveller cannot believe an armv of o.
OOO men were marched over it through the
fresh fallen snow two feet deep For five
days they struggled amid these gorges, and
over these ridges, and finally reached the
Rhine at Jlanz. For months after, the vuture
and eagle, hovered necessarily along the line
OF march, and beasts of prey were gorged with
the dead bodies. Nearly 5000 men were
scattered among the glaciers and rocks, and
piled in the abyss, and the bones of many an
unbured soldier may still be seen bleaching
Ill the ravines of The Jattser
A GEM.
We with n contcmporary that Moore rov.-