The Kenosha telegraph and tribune. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1859-1860, 1860-02-09
From ALL The YEAR ROUND.
REAL HORRORS OF WAR.

It man, now Dldden to look up and be cheerful b.
d cause he has been set free goriousy, ruefu
: taxes thought how he shall remedy the disorde
d ms deliverers have brought to him. Almost wit
e despair he gazes upon his crops, trodden into
y marsh by swiftly passing legions upon tt
$ stumps OF his vine trees, cut down pitlessy
warm ms benetactors soup above all, upon til
s memorials they have left to him, of bodies tbru
, barely foot below his soil, from which the swe
t tering sun distils the thick miasma of decomn,
, sluon encompassing him in clowd too broad
travel out of. 1t will be long before those hr
man shambles can be made to take the smooth
, decent, tranquil aspect of a graveyard.
But for the people outside who stood roun
watching the fight, with bated breath and sense
painfully strained, it seemed glorious, thrillin
spectacle, that campaign just now played out
For those who sit at a distance and read all tn
shifts and turnings and general theatrical bus
ness OF war in the open field, the trumpet blow
ing and fanfares, the Haunting colors and gand
liyeries, the marching and manoeuvring, the des
perate charges and bits Of dramatic heroism hay
grand and pulse-thrilling effect which makes
the eyes sparkle and the color come and co.
There is, at home, data from Aldershott, to furp
lsh the upholstery and supply light basis fo
fancy.
But this is all no more than the fine colorinp
consumptive cheek, or the bloom of rotter
apple. There is not, of all things existent ,
more repulsve coarse, untheatrical business thar
war; and what it brings with it, The delicate
film of gaudiness rubs off in an hour; the colo
lace furnishes in night; the bright uniforms
faded with rain and puddle stains, fall into rags
and show great patches. Impoverished camps be
come presently filthy swamps and open sewers
The grand ''pomp and circumstance of glorious
war" is-well enough in the abstract: in its de.
tails and private bearings it is offensive, rough
and overpowerng
Think oniy;of the common hackneyed express.
ions which pass so slightly between the lips
when speaking of a great battle. We talk exuit-
lngly, and with certain fire, of ga magnificent
charge !" OF "a splendid charge {" yet very few
will think of the hideous particulars these two
airy words stand for. The splendid charge is
headlong rush Of men on strong horses urged
to their utmost speed, riding down and over
whelming an opposing mass of men on foot
The readers mind goes no further: being con-
tent with the information that the enemy's line
was broken" and gave way" It does not fill
in the picture. 70 do SO effectively, we must
think first, of an ordinary individual run down in
the public street by a horseman moving at an
easy pace. The result is usually, facture and
violent confusion. We may strengthen the tones
OF the picture by setting this horseman at full
gallop, and joining to him company of other
flying horsemen. How will it then be with the
unhappy pedestrian? So when the splendid
charge" has done its work, and passed by, there
will be found sight, very much like the scene
OF trlghttul railway accident. There will be
the full complement of backs broken in two; of
arms twisted wholly off, of men impaled upon
their own bayonets of legs smashed up like bits
CT hrewood; of heads sliced open like apples of
other heads crunched into soft Jelly by iron hoofs
OF horses; of faces trampled out of all likeness
| to any thing human. This is what skulks behind
"a splendid charge" This is what follows, as
matter of course, when sour fellows rode them
IJF1pf IL y II a. y
how often does the commander, writing home in
his official dispatches, dwell particularly on the
gallant conduct of Captain Smith, who, finding
the enemy were annoying our right little got
his gum into position, and etfectuay SHIELD them
III check Both expressions are fair drawing
room phrases, to be mentioned cheerfully by la
dies lips. 1t is, as it were, a few flies buzzing
about our right wing teasing and fretting 'our'
men, And yet, properly transit lated, it signifies
this: that stray men of that right wing are now
and then leaping with a convulsive start into the
air, as Mimic bullet flies with a sharp sting thr'o
their hearts that stray men, suddenly struck are
rolling to the ground, that man here and there,
is dropping down quite suddenly with a shrek,
his frelock tumbling from his hand in short,
that there is scales of violent death-scenes be-
ing enacted up and down the long line
The reading public-instructed by Journals
and books of memoirs-can form for itself salts
factory pictures of the poor soldiers III hospital,
lying on their pallets i'll rows say at Scutari hav.
ing their pillows smoothed and cooling drinks
pofered by those kind, charitable ladies' who
went out to be their nurses. Has not the public
viewed paintings of the scene-the sick warrior
lying III comfortable convalescence, and taking
with grateful languor the cool beverage from his
gentle attendant The sympathysing public
has also had presented to it in manly and affect
ing language, by Mr. Russell, some pictures of
those sufferings which fall uuder the frightful cat
49, II n
has now collected a number of cases from the
late Indian mutiny, with the view of assisting
his profession take few samples from this mis-
cellany as among the real horrors of War
Private John Halliday received a gunshot
wound in the head, which carried away "a large
portion of the scalp and bone" and left Charge
irregular opening about two inches in diameter,
through which the brain might be seen pulsating.
This injury was done by bits of the telegraph
wire ingeniously cut up into slugs. Private o.
Lea'y was stricken by a large fragment of shell,
and at first appeared not to be seriously injured
Presently he complained of headache and sick
ness, and Crucial inscison was at once made
Here was discovered fracture, and an opening
left about the size of shilling" The dura
mater at once protruded through the wound and
was punctured. In few days convulslve fits
came OIL, with paralysis, and he died comatose.
Poor private O'Leary On post-mortem exami-
nation, one half of his head. internally, was dis
covered to be a mass of blood, and ''disorganiZed
cerebral matter" Private MKenzie had been
hit in the same place, and had several large frag-
ments of bone removed from him by means of an
instrument known as Heys saw still ''infama-
ton of the brain and its membI anes" set in and
the surgeons thought of making closer exami-
nation, when great fragment of bone was dis
covered turned edgeways," and sticking into
the dura mater! Strange tosay, private M Ken
zie recovered, and is doing duty now
Another soldier was brought in with 'nearly
half the roof of his skull blown off by SHE'LL
yet who held on till the tenth day
Often ball striking the scalp, splits into
two piecs, SO stout is the bony texture of the
skull. One fragment, however, is sure to pen
citrate. Sometimes it leaves a clean, round hole
with cracks radiating from it III all directions as
in broken pane of glass.
Often the ball cannot be found and has to be
CROPPED for unsuccessfully with the probe. One
wretched private had to carry it twenty-five days
in his head. Another mans piece burst in his |
hand, and part of the lock got embedded under
his eye, too far in to be removed Many more
were afflicted by ball making entrance just be-
hind the ear, and passing out over the temple. |
Then, come the bayonet wounds, jagged, per-
picking and painful. Now has it been thrust vi
olently through the chest and lungs aad out at
the back, and is as violently withdrawn with a
peculiar twist, whence come suppuration. pain
luI SdsplHS IOr DTedtn, anu all lduHeI Vi uOIIIu
Accomplishments. Now it has impaled the in
testnes, producing strange complication Now
it has pierced the lower extremity of the heart, |
and, curious to say the patient has lived five
days. The spine comes in, too, for its share of
injury. A bullet skins through the body smash
es the lower vertebrae of the column, makes its
escape the other side. The bones come away in
little pieces. The new Mimic ball has, we are
told the useful property Of shivering the bone
into numberless splinters and fragments. The
conical point acts as a wedge, and the scattering
of the splinters adds much to the inflammation
SO the dismal catalogue runs on.
The real horrors of war are PLAYED out to the