Litchfield enquirer., 1862-05-08
THE BATTLE OF PITTSBURGH

PAINFUL SCENES IAN ARMY or SExToNs- DEAD AND WouNDED-On Thursday, it was i'm possible to move without caution, as dead men were lying thickly everywhere for milestone times dozen in space of as many feet. Nc | such scene was ever before witnessed in Ameri | ca. The opponents lay as they had fallen, of ten the bodies of one heaped upon those of the | other. Wounded men, mangled horses crushed
 bodies, extended so intermidably it was imposs
 ible to pass through them, and the visitor would
 finally be compelled to turn and retraee ms
 steps. s.t, :. Rains had soaked the ground and covered ,t with pools of water, and sometimes the W9una,
 ed could be seen crawling on to the dead aha lying there to keep off from the damp eaf.n. el. Many had died in that position, and not g. lew of inc deaths were caused by exposure. Physi- clans were busy, laboring nobly, but instruments becama blunted and useless, and surgeons drop l nod with fatigue at their posts before nlEetn mart of the work had been done. a
 pN Numbers were drowned by being unable to
 crawl away from the positions where they had
 fallen, and in which the water rapidly collected Your city readers can form some idea of the carnage by picturing walk as far as from St. Louis, to the Fair Grounds among dead and dy- ing, stretched away out of sight on either side. The woods, far beyond our picket guards, are
 
 abandoned by the enemy on their retreat, brought in. Every house between here and Corinth is a hospital. We visited several of them and and found the floors covered with poor wretches, lying in pools of blood, their arms or legs torn off, Days passed without any nourishment, and in half the cases death had outstripped the physicians and was coming to theirfafd Certain- fya greater scene ofwide spread misery never ex- isted. The first day or two the air was filled with groans, sobs, and frenzied curses, but now the sufferers are quiet not from cessation of pain, but mere exhaustion. We frequently, a little to one side, where first the ambulances, af. terwards the dead carts, had failed to find them, came across the bodies of men who had bled to death. Around them the grass was stained with blood, and>often their hands was grasped convusively on few leaves with which they had endeavored to stop the life tide, until grow ing fainter and fainter they had given up in des- pair and laid back to die. One poor fellow, a boy who could not have been over fourteen, was lying against tree, knife in his hand, with The N was but partially finished, when death had compelled him to give up the gloomy task of carving his own epitaph. The terrible des- truction caused by cannon balls was evidenced in the sight of three bodies mangled by the same shot. The later, twelve pounder, had struck fourth man while he was evidently in stoop- ing posture hitting immediately on the top of the head, and driving the fragments of skull downward into the body, the shot remaining half hidden between the shoulders. I saw in three houses near our outer pickets and two miles from the battle ground four wounded re- bel captains, and 30 or 40 privates. Beauregard as he retreated, bore back with him his wound ed, leaving them in houses, barns and fence corners by the way. It is thus they are strewn over so great space. One of the officers was being carried to wagon as we stopped, and in the height of delirium waved an arm above hls head, cheeeing imaginary companies on to at tack. It will be a week before all can be col lected and taken care Of, as the farther out our pckets go, the thicker they find them. Now the battle is over, it becomes subject of won- der that the loss on both sides was not even greater. For two days the bullets flew without cessation, and passed like storm of destruction through the woods and camp. We were una ble to find over the entire area of hundreds of acres, where the sternest firing took place. a single tree that was not scared. Some had thirty or forty bullets imbedded in them, while shot and shell had covered the ground with limbs and trunks.
 TD7. & Tou;s Rennb7;crn