Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1862-04-23


Meantime there is lull in the firing. For
the first time since sunrise you fail to catch
the angry rattle of musketrY or the heavy
booming of the field guns. Either the enemy
must be preparing for the grand final rush
that is to crown the days success and save
the Southern Confederacy. or they are pIzsled
/ by cur last retreat, and are moving cautious
/ ly, lest we spring some trap upon them. Let
US embrace the opportunity and look about
the landing. Wepass the old log house, late
ly post Office, now full of wounded and sur
geons. which constitutes the Pttsburg"
part of the landing General Grant and staff
are in group beside it The General is con
fdent I'VE can hold them off till tomorrow;
then they beexhausted, and we'll go at them
! with fresh troops" A great crowd is collec
ted around the building, all in uniforms, most
of them with guns And yet we arc needing
troops in the front so sorely!
CowARDs
| On the bluffs above the river is a sight that
may we'll make our cheeks tngIe with shame
| for some soldiers. There are not less than
three thousand skulkers lining the banks
Ask them why they don't 90 to their places
in the line? Oh, our regiment is all cut to
pieces" " Why don't you go to where it is
forming again ?''' 81 can't find it," and the
hulk looks as if that would be the very last |
|
Officers are around among them, trying to |
hunt up their men, storning, Goa king com !
manding-cursing | am afraid. One strange |
fellow-a Major. if | remember aright-is |
making sort of elevated, superfne Fourth |
fully speech to everybody that will listen to |
him. lie meant well, certainly: Men of |
Kentucky, of Illinois, of Ohio, of Iowa, of In
diana, | implore you, beg of you, come up
now. Help us through two hours more
By all that you hold dear, by the homes you
hope to defend, by that flag you love- by the
States you honor, by all your love of country, |
by all your hatred of treason, | conjure you,
come up and do your duty now" And so on
for quantity. THAT feller's good speaker,
was the only response | heard, and the fellow
who gave it nestled more snugly behind his
tree as he spoke.
/ knew we'll enough the nature of a skull
king animal in an army during a battle.
had seen their performance before, but new
er on so large a scale-never with such an
utter sickness Of heart as looked, as now
Still, | do not believe there was very much
more than the average per centage. 1t was
a big army, and the runaways all sought the
landing.
ARRIVAL OF GENERAL BUELL..
Looking across the Tennessee we see body
of cavalry awaiting transportation over
| They are said to be Buells advance vet they
have been there an hour or two alone. But
suddenly there is a rustic among the runa- !
ways 1t is, it is You see the cleaning of
the gunbarrels, you catch amid the leaves |
and underground down the opposite side of
the river glimpses of the steady swinging
tramp of trained soldiers. A division of
Buells army is here! And the men who |
have left their regiments on the field send up |
three cheers for Bnell They cheering! May |
it pareh their throats as if they had been |
breathing the simeon.
Here comes a boat across with Lieuten-
ant and two or three privates of the Signal |
Corps. Some orders are instantly given the |
officer, and as instantly telegraphed to the |
other side by the mysterious wavings and !
raisngs and droppings of the flags. A stea-
mer comes up with pontOons on board, with |
which a bridge could be speedily thrown
across. Unaccountably enough, to onlookers,
she slowly reconnoitres and steamers back |
again. Perhaps, after all, it is better to have
no bridge there. 1t .implifes the question:
takes escape out of the count, and leaves it |
| victory or death-to the towards that stink |
behind the bluffs as well as to the brave men |
who peril their lives to do the State some SER
vice in the fields beyond. Preparations 90
rapidly forward for crossing the division |
(Geueral Nelson's which has the advance of
Buelps army on the dozen or so transports
that have been tied up along the bank.
We have spent but a few minutes on the
bluff, but they are the golden minutes that
count for years Well was it for that driven,
defeated, but not disgraced army of General
Grants that those minutes were improved
Colonel Webster, Chief of Staff, and an artil
lery officer of no mean ability, arranged the
guns that he could collect, of those that re
mained to US. in sort of semicrcle protec-
ting the landing, and bearing chiefly on our
centre and left, by which the Rebels were
pretty sure to advance Corps of artillerists
to man them were improvised from all the
batteries that could be collected. Twenty-Five
guns in all were placed in position. Two of
them were very heavy siege guns, long thir.
tv,two's. Where they came from | do not
know; what battery they belonged to | have
no idea l only know that they were there, in
the right place, half mile back from the
bluff, sweeping the approaches by the left and
by the ridge Corinth road that there was
nobody to work them that DR.. Cornyn, Sur
geen of Frank Blair's First Missouri Artil-
lery, proffered his services; that they were
gladly accepted, and that he did work them
to such effect as to lay out ample work for
scores of his professional brethren on the 9th.
er sids of the fight.
Remember the situation 1t was half past
four o'clock-perhaps quarter later STILL
Every division of our army on the field had
been repulsed. The enemy in the camps
of four out of five of them We were driven
to within little over half mile of the land
ing. Behind US was deep, rapid river. Be-
fore was a victorious enemy. And still
there was an hour for fighting. Oh, that
night or Blucher would comet Oh, that night
or Lew. Wallace would come Nelson's Di-
vision of Buells army evidently couldn't cross
in time to do us much good. We didn't yet
know why Lew. Wallace wasn't on the ground.
In the justice of a righteous cause, and in
that semi-circIe of twenty two guns in posi-