The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1861-08-01
The Horrors of Battle.

The Horrors of Battle.
The correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial writing from the scene of
the Rich Mountain battle, describes the
appearance Of the dead and wounded,
as follows:
THE DEAD ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE.
The dead presented a ghostly spec.
tacle. / never conceived anything
half so hideous. No power of express
sion is adequate to describe it. 1t was
a complete concentration of horrors
self. 1t is said that the features of
those who die by other causes, are usu-
ally relieved by faint smile-that suf-
fering is rarely left imprinted on the
countenance of corpse-but that the
countenances of those who are shot
have impressed upon them the traces
of pain. Those which saw-about fif-
ty-exhibited nothing but the revolt
ing agony. There was not the faintest
glimmer of a lingering smile, not the
slightest possible tint Of softness or
mlldness, not lineament of beauty
remaining, to relieve the harsh, horrid,
distorted, agonized faces of the dead
Rich Mountain. The bright sun,
glancing through the parting leaves,
lent no kindly ray to soften the ugly
outlines; melancholy had no sad, quiet
shadow, to mingle with the hard, for
bidding aspect Of the dead face on
which | gazed with perfect horror.
Had there been even traces of angry
passion, vindictiveness, revenge, death
could not have stared so horribly as il
did, out of those CHASTITY hneaments;
we could have felt there was still some
thing human left in those human faces
but mere outlines.
The faces of our own dead were as
fearfully forbidding as those of their
dead enemies. 1t was impossible to
drive from my mind reflections upon
the terrible intensity of grief which
those who see the forbidding counte-
nances of the dead loved ones on the
field of battle, must experience. i'm
agine it must exceed all other grief
Tor the dead-because every feature is
so distorted and unnatural. so entirely
devoid of the tone of expression which
friends have loved in the living fea-
lures. Some were lying prone on the
field as they had fallen, with limbs
sprawling, great thick blotches of Goa
gulated blood near their bodies, their
garments saturated with the ensan-
guined flow, and their gaping faces
and stony, eyes, staring full at the
broad, brazen sky. One who had been
shot down in the woods above the
breastworks, lay stark upon his face,
one arm thrown with convulsive
struggle around the limb of fallen
tree. Clotted blood which had flowed
out Of his side, was near him in thick
Jumps.
But the most hideous scene was that
of twenty-nine dead rebels packed hor-
ribly together in a trench-most of
them with fearful orifces perforating
their heads, through which the brains
oozed in sickening clots; others with
MIME holes full in their breasts; some
with shattered limbs, and others with
lacerated and mangled flesh, with here
and there splintered bone exhiting it
self. Oh, horrible most horrible
Our own precious dead, but few in
number, had been more tenderly gath
cred, and kind comrades had deceDtly
composed their stiffening forms. [ lif-
ted the covering which had concealed
their inanimate features, but saw moth
ing to remove from my mind that indel.
lible impression of unmitigated ugli-
ness of dead faces of men shot in bat.
tie.
Our own dead occupy separate graves
on the battle field they $50 gallantly
won. The bodies of our brave, bu
misguided foemen were carefully laid
In common grave, and are now rest
ing quietly where but yesterday they
fought so well.
THE WOUNDED.
Our own and the rebel wounded Law
strown together in blankets on the
floors Of Harris house. Every availa
BILE space was covered with the convul
sive and quivering bodies. Down un
der the porch there was another lin,
of wounded. There was no differenc,
in the treatment of the sufferers. TIL,
severely wounded of the enemy wer,
attended to before the slightly injured
of our own army. Most of them sui
fared in silence, few slept soundly
but some moaned with intense agony
One poor fellow, an Indianian, sho
through the side of bis head, who coul'
even yet stand on his feet with assis
lance, suffered excrutiating agony. ]
he survives it will be almost miraculous
Now and then wounded rebel woul,
stare sullenly at our people, but tn
majority appeared gratefully surprise,
NJ tho LII naes with which fhav ..