The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1862-02-08

| spread over the plain blow. Through
out the night there was the murmur of
voices and the confusion of military
movements as horsemen and footmen
selected positions for the battle. The
sentinels of the two armies exchanged
kindly greetings, and could almost touch
each other wi h heir muskets. In these
sad hours the spirit of humanity tri-
'umphed over the ferocity of war, and the
soldiers of the two armies, feeling no
hostility. as they walked their dreary
rounds, cheered each other with the
interchange of food and wine.
The morning had not yc; dawned when
the cannonade commenced. Seven hun
dred pieces of artillery, worked by the
most expert gunners, moved down the
opposing hosts upon the hill and plain.
Column after column melted away before
the merciless discharges. At the same
time smothering, binding storm of
snow swept the field. The smoke of
the battle, blending with the storm,
cnvcloped the combatants in the gloom
OF almost impenetrable night. Beneath
this sulpurous canopy, where the flash
of the guns could scarcely be perceived,
squadrons of horsemen and footmen were
hurled against each other.
Thus for eighteen hours the battle
ragged, one hundred and forty thousand
men firing into each oilers bosoms. In
the midst of the conflict the emperor
was informed that church, which occu-
pied a position deemed of essential i'm
portance, had been taken by the enemy.
Squirting his horse In the midst of col
umn of his troops, he said: eve must
have that church back again at every
hazard With shout of que Temper
eur the column made resistless charge,
through s,orm of bullets upon the foe.
The emperor espied in the ranks an old
grenadier, with bloodstained clothes,
blsckened with gun-powder, and his
left arm just torn off by shell, while
drops of blood were fast falling from the
ghastly wound.
Stay, stay" cried the emperor,
"and 60 to the ambulance and get your
wound dressed"
81 WILL" said the soldier, I" so soon
as we shall have taken the church," and
rushing on with his comrades, he disap-
peared amidst the smoke and the tumult
of the battle.
The twilight of the stormy day grad
ually gave place 10 the gloom of night.
The $ orm of battle still ragged with I'M
diminished fury. Thirty thousand Rus.
SLAMS were already stretched upon the
frozen ground. Ten thousand French
men, the dying and the dead, were also
strewed upon the plain. Ten thousand
horses had also been struck by the balls.
Some were struggling in the convulsive
agonies of death, while others, in the
widest terror, were rushing riderless
over the plain.
1t was now ten o'clock at night, and
nearly one-half of the Russian army was
destroyed, and all the survivors were
exhausted and respondent. At chat
hour fresh division of the French army
impetuously entered the field. This
decided the day But still the Rus
slams, though retiring, maintained a
brave and unbroken front. The victors,
utterly exhausted, sought such rcposc
as could be found, shelterless benea h
that wintry sky. Napoleon, according
to his invarable custom, traversed the
field of battle, to minister, with his own
hands, to the wounded and the dying
1t was midnight, cold and stormy. Per-
haps never before did earth present
spec acle of such unmitigated misery
Frightful was the scene which the dawn
of the morning revealed. Nearly forty
thousand men, awfully mutilated, were
stretched upon the crimsoned snow. A
wall Of anguish rose from the wounded,
which froze every heart with terror
For eight days Napoleon remained at
Eylau, until all the sick and wounded
were carefully provided for, when he
returned to the Vistula. In the spring
he again marched forth to the victory Of
Friedland and the peace of Tilsit.
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