Smyrna times., 1861-08-15
The Dead on a Battle Field.

| A correspondent of the Missouri Republican
thus describes the appearance of the dead and
wounded on the ground where the battle of
Rich Mountain was fought, Oh July 18th, which
gave Western Virginia to the Unionists:
The dead presented ghastly spectacle. 1t
was complete concentration of horrors self
II Is said that the features of those who die by
other causes are usually relieved by faint
smile-that suffering is rarely left imprinted
on the cOuntenance of corpse-but that the
countenance Of those who are shot have i'm
pressed upon them the traces of pain. Those
which | saw-about fftY-exhibited nothing
but the revolving characteristics of extreme
agony. There was not the faintest glimmer of
lingering smile-not a lireament of beauty
remaining. The bright sun glancing through
the parting leaves, left no kindly ray to soften
the ngly outlines; mela ncholy had no sad, qui
ct shadow to mingle with the hard, forbidding
aspect of tbs dead faces on which gazed with
| perfect horror. Had there been even traces
| of angry passion, -vindictvensss, revenge,
| death could not have stared so horribly as t
did out Of those ghastly lineaments; we could
have felt there was still something human left
in those human faces, but mere outlines.
The faces OF our own dead were az fearfuly
| ferbidding as those of their dead enemies. 1t
was impossible to drive FROM my mind refec.
tons upon the terrible intensity of grief which
those who see the forbidden countenances Of
dead loved ones on the field of battle must ex-
| perience. imagine it must exceed all other
| grief for the dead, because every feature is 60
distorted and unnatural, so entirely devoid of
the tone of expression which friends have low
ed in the living features. Some were lying
prone on the field as they had fallen, wi. h
limbs sprawling, great thick blotches of
cosgulated blood near their bodies, their gar.
nents saturated with the ensanguined flow,
and their gaping faces and atony eyes, staring
full at the broad brazen sky. One who had
bsen shot down in the woods, above the breast
works, lay stark upon his face, one arm thrown
with convulsive struggle around the limb OIL
fallen tree. Clothed blood, which had flow ed
out of his side, was near him in thick Jumps.
But the most hideous scene was that oftwenty
nine dead rebels packed together in a trench
most Of them with fearful oriices perforating
their heads, through which the brain oozed in
slckening cots; others with MIME holes full
IN their breast, some with shattered limbs, and
others with lacerated and mangled flesh, with
here and there a splintered bone exhibiting il
SELF oh, horrible most horrible! Our owr
precious dead, but few in number, had beer
more tenderly gathered, and kind comrades hat
{ decently composed their stiffening forms.
lifted the covering which concealed their imam
E innate features, but saw nothing to remove from
my mind that indelible impression of unmitiga
e ted ugliness of dead faces Of men shot 10 bat
n tie.
;, One poor fellow Of the Thirteenth Indians
: was shot in the left eye by a grape shot. |
perforated the brain and dislodged and disor
t ganized the whole inner structure of the era
num- from the skull downward leaving mon
strOus cavity of unima ginable horror. TIL
! ball left the eyelid perfect, entering directly
: under the nose, where i, joins the forehead
e without disfguring the nose in the least
: perfectly clean, but very singular wound.
. Oar own and rebel wounded lay strewn to
r gether in blankets on the foor of Harris house
t There was no difference in the treatment O
the sufferers. Most ithem suffered in silence
h few slept soundly, but some moaned with in
tense agony. | shall not attempt to depict tn
/ ghasIly pictures of hOrrid wounds and sh udder
= ing forms Of poor victims, TO whom it woul
t have been merciful if they could have dice
bot who lay on the cold ground, quiverug wit
i agony, with no chance to survive, and ye
d could not exc out last suffering gasp.