Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1847-07-09
CARROLLTON, OHIO--FRIDAY, JULY Q, 1871

small riding hOod, topped BY delicate Whlle
plume and looped in front with broach Of the
/ brightest luslre.
Marian's cheek was deadly pale, and her eyes
were swollen with weeping for the thought Of her
fathers death lay heavy at her heart, and as
she glanced at the tall form Of major Tracy,
mounted on his steed at her side, all the scenes
ofthe day that was well nigh over and Of the pre-
ceding night, rose before her vivid fancy like the
fresh remembrance Of the horrors Of some terri
be dream.
"Shall we move forward, friend Tracyl 1t
lacks but an hour Of sunset-Charles, mount thy
horse, we must be moving"
alt recly makes me quite solemn.like TO sec
you all a-going, and scarce a soul in the house
but myself" exclaimed Miss Betty Fisher, ad-
vancing 10 the side Of Marian's horse. "Oh,
DEAR oh dear, here's been purity day ofitl And
arter the unmannerly soldiers have filled Mr..
Chow's house with dead, and broke the furniture
and scattered all the chney all over the house
OH goodness mel They then must clear out,
colonel Musgrave, lieutenant Wildwood and all,
leaving me TO look to their miserable place.
Oh, Lud, Miss Wallham, | shall never get over
this fright for a twelye-month. Don't look 50
sad-that'g a DEAR" continued the loquacious
house.keeper. "lt's q comfort TO you to think,
that the rebel officer didnt run away with you
quite"
''Verily, Miss Betty Fisher, thee will keep US
here, listening to this prauIe, until tomorrow
morn. Let US push on, friend Tracy"
"Good-bye, Miss Waltham," screamed Betty
as the party rode over the lawn, "good-bye, and
remember me to all enquiring friends"
"Gorra-mighty-Lor bress me-" chuckled the
negro-"Dal ar woman got a tongue like de hop
per Of flour mill! Clack, clack, and no stop
pin when it gets a.gon. Dat am a fac"
As Marian rode along the lawn, toward the
Germantown road on her way homeword, she
could not help noting the awful quiemess which
had gathered over the battle field, in the place Of
the noise and tumult oflhe morn.
The grounds, as we'll as the mansion, were
deserted by the British soldiers, and the dead
were srewn over the surface Of The lawn in
ghaslly heaps. The grass was trodden down,
and wet with blood, while every indenlalon or
hollow ortho earth, was filled with pool Of the
crimson current, and here and there were crew.
ces dug in the ground, by the rolling of the can
non wheels, now atfordng temporary channels
for the reception Of The clolted masses of human
gore that made the lawn marsh Of carnage.
Pieces of broken muskets fragments Of bayo-
nets, remnants Of shattered swords Uttered the
ground, minglng with bullets and cannon balls,
and all the ten thousand wrecks Of war and bat
te-strie, were strewn along, amid the piles o
dead bodies. The beams Of the setting sun gd
ed the pale faces Of the dead, with a momenary
light that looked like a bitter mockery of the
ruddy glow Of life, and the warm flush oChcalth
Marian beheld death in every shape and posi-.
lion Here an American soldier had fallen al
The foot of Tree, and died with his back propped
against the trunk, while his head fell to one side
aud his smoulh opened with ghastly grin. One
hand cutched the shattered musket stock, and
the other lay stiffGned on the wound in his side
Close by him, British soldier seemed 10 have
been swept down in the very moment of the
charge. His back was turned to the sky, one
knee was bent in as if he had met the death
wound when running, and his face was burieC
in the ground, while his arm was outslretched &
his stifened fingers, were thrust into the upturn
ed earth, as though he had grasped the sod in the
convulsive throes ormortal agony.
Farther on lay heap of dead, American anc
Briton, Scot and German, nterlocked in ont
ghastly pile of mangIed bodies, some with the
faces uplurned to the sunlight, some of the
hands uprased as if to ward off the descending
blow, others with every limb contored by tht
/. spasm that attends sudden and painful death
/ while some there were lay extended upon lht
earth as calmly and quietly as though they hat
but laid themselves down 10 take q pleasan
I sleep.
Here lay q youth, clad in the rustic dress o
: an American farmers boy. He lay on his sidt
, with his tangled brown hair thrown over his fore
] head, his sun-burnt cheek crimsoned with spot
D of blood, and his plain and uncouth garments
drilled with bullet holes and torn by sword thrust
t His old-fashioned fowling-piece, the companion
of many a wild ramble amid the soitudes of th
forest, lay at his side, and his arm was stretched
o out as though he grasped it in his death struggle
d but the sffened figures could but touch the shat
# tered stock without enclosing it in their dyin!
II embrace. And thus along the whole field, IL
l. each level plain, were scattered those who hat
d fallen in the mornings struggle, resting in al
the ghastliness of death, upon the sod which ha
bounded beneath their tread at the hour of sun
rise. Had aught been wanting to complete tn
picture, it was supplied by the presence of va
rous mercenary wretches. who, lowering upo
! the outskirts Of the field, stripped and plundere
| the dead; and scared away flock ravens, VIII
q q had perched upon their victims, in anticipation
# ofa plentiful banquet.
O "God Of mercy!" exclaimed the Quaker, q
e his eve drank in The horrors Of the battlefield
), "if ever the fancy might imagine that spirits {
!. the dark world had built loathrome mocker
v of every high and heavenly sympathy that dwell
in the bosom of man, surely that mocking spec
i lace is here, and man oulragng all feelings q
: brotherhood. all feelings of affection, all that
= good or holy in his name, has laid his feo'
|, man down upon the earth in all the shapes {
. death, and every mangIed limb and torn carcass
Q seems TO bear witness that the Lord God dive
leth not in man, but rather that he is the tempt
! of the Evil one."
Here the nnrtv reached the main rond. an