New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-08-05
Inei.tents of the Great Battle.

{ 500 incidents OF the Great Eaftle.
s5435fsa' f.
From long and interesting letter in the charles-a
ton Courier we extract the following:
No person who was not upon the ground, and an
eyewitness of the stirring scenes which there I
transpired, can begin to comprehend, from a de-
scriptfon the terrible realities Of battle; and I
even those who participated are competent to +
speak only of tEeir own personal experience.
Where friends and foes are falling BY scores, and /
every species of missile was flying through the air.
Threatening each instant to send one into eternity
little time il afforded for more observation re
Election than is required to preserve personal /
safetv The scene is one Of the most exciting and |
most exhilerating that can be conceived Imagine |
regiment passing You at g double quick, the |
men cheering with enthusasrn Their teeth sci.
their eyes flashing, and their whole in frenzy OF
resolution. You accompany them to the field.
They halt. An Aid de- Camp passes to or from the
commanding General. The clear voices of the
officers ring along the line in tones of passionate
eloquence their words short thrilling and electric
march, and the body move into action For the
first time in your lie you listen to the whizzng OF
iron hail. Grape and canister fly into the ranks,
bombs burst overhead, and the fragments fly all
around you. A friend fahs; perhaps dozen or
twenty of your comrades lie wounded or dying at
your feet; strange involuntary shrinking steals
over you, which it is impossible 10 resist. You
feel inclined neither to advance or recede but
are still bound by the contending emotions OF
the moral and physical man. The cheek blanches,
the lip quivers, and the eye ALMOST hesltates 70
perhaps, be ordered to stand an hour inactive,
| havoc meanwhile marking its footsteps with blood
on every side. Finally the order is given to adj
vance, to fire: Or to. to charge ana now, Rnat
q new man. Personal safety is your least CON
Germ. Fear has no existence in your bosom.
Hesitation gives way before an uncomfortable de-
sire to rush into the tl1ickest Of the tight. Ihe
| dead and dying around you, if they receive q
passing thought only TO stimulate you to re-
venga. You become cool and deliberate, and
watch the effect Of bullets the showers of bursting
! shells the passage of cannon balls as they rake
their murderous channels through your ranks; the
plunging Of wounded horses, the agoaies OF the
dying and the clash Of contending arms which
! follows the dashing charge, with feeling SO
calIous by surrounding circumstances that your
soul seems dead to every sympathiziag and selfish
thought.
through the field of battle. But when the excite
nent has passed, when the roll of musketry has
ceased the noisy voices of the cannon are sted,
the dusky pail of suphurous smoke has risen from
the field and you stroll over the theater of carnage,
hearing the groans of the wounded, discovering
| here shattered almost beyond recognition, the
form Of some dear friend whom only an hour be-
fore you had met in the full flush Of life and hap
piness; there another, perforated by bullet;
third with limb shot away; fourth with his face
disfgured: o fifth torn almost to fragments: a
sixth headless corpse; the groud ploughed up
and stained with blood human brains splashed
around limbs without bodies, and bodies without
limbs, scattered here and there and the same pic
ture duplicated scores of times, then you begin 70
Erealze the horrors of war and experience q reac-
ton of nature. The heart opens its 1ood-gates,
humanity asserts herself again. and you begin to
feel and act more the man and less tue demon
Friend and foe alike now receive your klndest min
isterngs. The enamy who but 4 short tune before
full of hate, you were doing all in yonr power te
| kill YOU now exert to save. 9ou suppy&lim will
water to queneh his thirst, with food to sustain h
strength, and with sylnpathizing words to sootht
his troubled mind. All that is human or charitable
in your nature now Sses to the surface, and you
are animated by that spirit of mercy " which bless
eth him thrt gives and him that takes.' A battle
field is emnently place that tries mems souls.
, Passing over the ground few minutes after the
/, , retreat of the eneMy, had ample opportunity O.
I witnessing the exhibition of these noble traits
= Dead and wounded lay scattered BY hundreds
u men from Massachusetts, and South Carolina; iron
Maine and Louisiana from Rhode Island and Ala
bana; from New York and Virginia Representing
/, one bloody congregation from nearly every stat
of the Old Confederaey-.the Victims OF each othef
hate Rapidly as possible those who could b
| moved by hand were raised and borne to the neigh
Il Il boring hospitals. Those most desperately wound
e | ed awaited the arrival Of the ambuances, bn
u friend and enemy alike received all the attentio
| that could be rendered By the side OF those VIII
could not be moved till late in the night, or unit
e the ensuing day, crackers and cups o. water Wer
r placed. Bushes were torn up and ! little arbor
made above them, and pillows of leaves wer
placed under their heads, that the sufferers migh
be made as comfortable as possible. !,
- At almost every step as you passed across th
localities which the ngnE FtSeu lSTceSb, luiSD
u be heard the cry for water;n and n no nstanc
that am aware of was the appeal unheeded ou
men spared no trouble to afford relief. One nobl
rs fellow-a South Carolinian by the way-just as
entered the field had New York Z,uava in HI
It. arms carrying him to a neighboring brook, Wher
MT among the thicket he found comparatively cor
Portable abiding place during the night. Anothe
had taken off his coat and made Wth ~ pllieoIW ae y
n shirt with which he was binding up the head oi
wounded Yankee.
Of The hospitals were located in various places
some in the woods, some in distant farm-houses a.
va barns and few in tents To these points, duriI
is the battle and afterwards the injured were remov
as rapidly as circumstances would permit. He
n limbs were cut of, bodies opened, heads trepann
ed and balls extracted from morning till night, as 70
as they arrived. The sufferers were laid upon t
grass; their blood-wet clothing removed, and II
few seconds more the keen knife would be at wo
among crashed bones, quiyerng sinews and re
~ ged flesh.
- The character of some of the wounds were t
u rible, and strange to say, those Of our own $
diers were generally worse than those OF the Q
as envy. This is owing to the fact that we fired rou
he, balls while the Yankees fired MIME balls, eve
nd one Of which, wherever it fairly str kes, makes
lie ghastly looking wound. All large proportion Q
men were wounded in the extremties, but whe
n ever they struck the balls generally passed throne
) Some OF the wounds were very singular IN TN
eek character and from their peculiar localities it i
an matter of wonaerment that they did not exterT
art nate life at once saw several VINO had been 81
soil in the head the Dali apparently passlhg 4tnrou
the brain and coming out behind Another was
tr the mouth, the ball coming out at the back Of
eir neck Another was struck on the breast bone,
lis ball making a complete circuit Of the body q
in coming out at its point of entrance. Another "
1ur struck in the abdomen, the ball coming out Of
ry. thigh Another was shot in the back while lyj
iii. down, the ball passing under the shoulder bla
est coming out in front and between his shirt and b0
ye where it was afterwards found. The last ndiyid
the was Mississippi rifeman, and as it shows
hat GOODNESS Of the from his section of the col
de- try, give his account in his own words. He sal
of g Stranger, was fighting mighty mean, lying DO
the and popping away as fast az could, whenthe b
ots thing TknoWed the little whistler tapped me rt
where you see the mark. Now, the fact IS,
but stood fire afore, and bin in asorts Of scrimmag
iot and thought Billy IS time was come ! b.
an thought seed the id Yankee Aboiitionist y
ort dfawad beadon me, and was bound TO have
Ii a shot at him If died for it. Sol riz mp, got
gen Yankee between me aud Mississippi, and il
ont ever seed man come down on his knees in dou
yer quick it was that same old Abotioner thou
= N id done enuf so | laid down on the grouud
of quit, and the next thing knowed, they brou
,jn me here Jest say ] won't die, Doctor, and
afv stand a treat.' assured him was no physic
to- but that there evidently too much griste Al
and him for him to die from spch wound "
ON stranger said he, ''Im powerful glad to hear
say that; jest give rue drink Of water, peel
.ch shirt off aud wrap ae ip my blanket aud LII be