Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-08-19
])cotc Department,
From The Christian Citi=en.
Extract from a Discourse on War.
BY WIN. C. wHITCOMB.
BY WIN. C. wHlTCOMB.


C0RcIHdcd.
We want to know the worst of the case, even
if it be narrowing to the feelings, and ask you
Just to visit with me in Imagination a battlefield,
say a battlefield on the plains of Mexico, where
scenes have been enacted which are acknowledge
ed to be the most cruel and bloody known in the
history Of warfare, and where many an earthly
paradise, SO far as the beautiful and sublime in
nature are conccred, like that of Monterey, has
been converted into a pandemonium. Hark!-
hear you that beating of drums and roaring of
cannon, that firing Of guns and cIashing Of
swords, those screams of the wounded, and that
death-gurgIe in the throat of the expiring! See
you that fearful slaughter of human beings,
while bIoodshed and c1rnage are %reigning tri-
umphant, and hell doubtless keeps jubilee!
O my God! what a dread scene is presented
to our view when gazing upon a field Of battle,
Beings made but a little lower than the angels
are writing in agony and weItering in their
blood! blood needIessIy spilled, and which as it
soaks the ground, cries to heaven for retributIon.
Yes, blood is there, the bare sight Of which max
es some Of US nervous, causing an indescrible
sensation about the heart, especially if it have
been she'd unnecessarily. One man is bespat-
tered all over with the brains of comrade in the
fight; stjlfaned corpses are strewn here and there
over the field: many a poor wretch, crawling a.
bout with bruised limbs and a mutilated frame.
is parehed with an unnatural thirst, and sends
up a piercing call fer water; while groans and
shrleks are rending all the air. Dear friends
does not the sight of your eyes and the hearin-
of your ears affect your hearts! No wonder that
many, after contemplating such a scene, shouId
on retiring to sleep be haunted by spectral i'm
ages of horror, and dream of bones and souls
and cIottcd Hood, and even of hell itself, Bu
if the mere consideration of these things is 81
dreadful, what must the reality be to the iniatu
ated attors and their 'familiesl
That | have not colored the picture of a Mex
lean battlefield too highly may be learned from
various accounts of eye-witnesses which hav,
been the rounds Of the newspapers. You have al
read Of the poor Mexican woman who wen
among the wounded like an angel of mercy.
carrying water to the thirsty and bread to tn
hungry, binding up the wounds of the soIdle
and administering sympathy as best she could
until ball struck her and she fell dead anon,
those she was striving to bless. Now | woul'
inquire if that woman is not more worthy c
, having a monument erected to her memory tina
is General Taylor or Santa Annal To wip
} the damp sweat of death from the brow of th
expiring, or even to dry a single tear, is NOR
: worthy of fame than the shedder of seas of hu
man gore. Around the memory of such wi
yet gather halo of true glory, while mlIltar
y and all other spurious forms of glory will sin
t and be blasted forever.
e Will any one ask ne to join in those exulti
+ tons which are echoing and re-echoing through
out the country by those friendly to war, in cor
0 sequence of victories gained over a weak an
imbecile foe? Rather ask me to dance and sin
in a grave yard, amid tombstones, or anon
collins containing the dead bodies of friends, {
by the side of a man %inhumanly cut to piece
n with tho knife of an assassin for | would
r soon do it as to join in the shouts and huzzas
those who rejoice over the result Of a fight