Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1862-04-01
The Dead al Fort Doneisop.

The Dead al Fort Donelson.
a correspondent of the McHenry County
Union gives the following description of
Che bloody field Of Donelson, which we
{Nblish. as NEST Of oar readers are deeply
Interested in everything pertaining to that
great battle:
Early on Monday morning. in company
with several friends and an officer who was
~ the engagement in Gen. Netherlands
splumn on the right Of eur lines, rode
fer portion of the battlefield 1t had
1een cloudy during Saturday and Sunday,
re sun refusing to shed his light on so sad
scene. On this morning. however, the
"a came out brightly, and the atmosphere
Was almost as mild and baimy as in the
Honth Of May in Illinois. shall never for-
Get that morning, nor that battlefield. It
vas the FIRST scene Of the kind had ever
Witnessed, aud fondly hoped it might be
the last.
We FIRST rode over the ground where the
e -seis, on Saturday, endeayored so hard
= bseak throQgh Gun lines. Thatthe fight
IssiSs : ! q the most desgeFateschar-
acter. the scores OF the dead lying sllaround
fully attested. 1 counted on a piece Of
ground not more than hundred feet
square, thirty five dead rebels lying where
they fell; while in every direction we took
we would meet their dead on every hand
In deep ravine, just below the ground
occupied by the rebels, the Illinois Eleventh,
Eighth and Twentieth regiments had met
the terrible shock OF the charge of sixteen
hundred rebel cavalry supported by six
or seven regiments of infantry. 1t was
here, too, where they were exposed for two
hours to the rifles from the enemy's rifle
pits, not more than two hundred yards
from their front lines. | need not write
that here our dead were lying in heaps as
| it were. When we reached the ground,
parties from these regiments had COM
menced the sad work of gathering their
/ dead. The Eleventh had already identified
| forty four, and placed them in rowe Of ten
near the place selected for the burial. The
Twentieth had found twenty, and the
Eighth thirty, and still the ground was
strewn with dead Oh every side.
was deeply touched at the tenderness
manifested by our soldiers in performing
the painful task of gathering and identify
irg their fellen companions. The men who
two days before had met their foe without
! fear or fiinching seemed unnamed, and
when they found those who stood by their
sides until :hey fell, they would weep over
them and pour forth the sadest l6menta-
items to which | ever listened. When asked
by us the names Of those just brought in.
they could not speak their names without
weeping One incident deeply touched me
One young man among the dead had been
passed by unrecognized, and no one knew
him. While was standing near him g
party from one of the regiments came up
an after the representatives Of each com
pany had gone up to his body and examined
his counteuance carefully, he was still no,
identified. They were about 10 leave him
when one Of the men requested his COM
rades to stay moment, and said: Il Dc
not know this dead soldier | have NJ
means of identifying him or knowing tt
what regiment he belonged but though
be might have a mother, perhaps a sister,
and the noble young soldiers lips quivereC
and his eyes filled with tears as he spokt
these endearing names-perbaT he wa
thinking of his own mother and sister
Come, let US bury him"-and four mel
tenderly picked him up and b)rebim ava,
and laid him down with their own dead.
Thus the work of gathering the deaf
went on. Before leaving this part of tn
field the Eleventh regiment had founC
sixty seven of their dead The Colonel o
the regiment with several hundred mel
had come up to pay the last sad tribute @
respect to his brave though dead soldiers
With uncovered heads they stood aroun,
the grave. The Colonel with streamin
eyes and quivering lips addressed fe,
words to his men in honor Of the dead
Al ~
, which he especially commended the parent
, and friends of the slain upon the battle
field to the clemency of the Great Fathe
{ of US all and then the dead were slow |
lowered down into the grave.
/ shall not soon forget this burial upO
the battlefield. 1t was most solemn an
f impressive. | could not keep out of m
| thoughts the many desolate homes an
t hearts to which the tidiDgs FRI IN this batil
field will bear such a heavy burden
sorrow and anguish. How many home
5 have lost the household bond and stay
How many loved ones has death, on tn
Q cruel field, wrenched away from those WI
have waited and watched long for the
: return, and now must wait in vain
= Fathers, husbands, brothers and frienC
lie side by side in the same grave YOun
!, ! ulcn upon WuOnl dSeu pdTeHls slayeu Inc
: trembling steps-onIy sons of widowe
= mothers, brothers of orphaned sisters fe
e side by side and sleep 10 the same gray
!. Surely, war is most cruel.
' Everywhere we rode these last sad ofic,
d were being performed. One thing SCENE
! strange to me. The rebel dead were
o almost every instance passed by. / il
quired of an officer the meaning of thi
and he informed me that after our ow
4 soldiers were buried the slain of the emer
Y would be buried. 1t seemed to me th
: it would have been noble and magnanimoI
4 to have cared for them with the san
G affeetionate interest which was so gene
/, ously bestowed upon our own dead soldier
e | understood afterwards that they remain
b ed on the field unbnried until the Thursda
e after the battle"