Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1862-03-25
The western Dead.


We copy the following truthful tribute
TO our brave sons who bled and died at
Fort Douel-On. from the N. Y. Times:
As time reveals the nature and proper
ton OF the struggle at Fort Douelson, we
hnd-eoGtrary to our usual experience in
reports of battles-that the first news un-
derstaied its importance. So accustomed
are we to exaggeratons in the dispatches
and-letters relating to military operations
IN this war, that most people unconscious
ly deduct large percentage from the ac-
counts of every new event in our cam
paign. But, in regard to this FIRST great
collision of the hostile armies, of the West,
we ind 1t necessary to add to our earliest
reports. Time and fuller information re-
veal tho battle of Fort Donelson as the
greatest battle fought thus far on the
| American Continent; three days desper-
ate struggle between an assailing force Of
(probabiy) $4,000 men, and well en-
trenched defending army of from twenty
TO thirty thnnsand-llie line Of battle. ex-
tending several miies-ths struggle veer-
ling to and fro as positions are taken or
lO>t.-the woods and ravines echoing with
! the crack of thousands Of rifles and the
/ boom OF at least seventy pieces Of artillery
! Oh each side. Desperate sortes are made
BATTERIES are taken re taken and lost
/ again-fresh regiment succeeds regiment
/ In the fierce struggle, and in one case a
/ sally Is made with the most determined
/ purpose by some 10000 men of the be-
sieged force to cut their way through-an
attack which is finally repulsed with great
lIss. They are three gloomy and deplora-
BILE days 10 the natural word--thoush for
ever glorious in our history. The tough
SELLERS Of the West fight amid rain, and
sleet and snow; they lie down on the fro>
zen ground or in the snow at night, and it
is believed that many of the wounded are
frozen to death.
They have little food or rest during those
fearful days even their blankets as is u.s.
ually the case III battles, have been Adams
doned, and they are exposed to all the in
clemency oftho season. Their naval allies
are beaten back. and the attack must de-
pend alone on them, while the enemy has
most strong and difficult position But
they never think for moment of with
drawing, or giving up the assault. They
set themselves down before Fort DoneIson
to take il, and, like the true sons of the
| Pilgrims, as most of them are, they will
not give it up till they have done it. Each
common soldier knows that the whole
course of American his:ory-rerhaps the
life of the Unicn-dcpends on the result oil
those hard fought days. Tue dead fall in
heaps under the desperate onsets of the be
sieged.
In one regiment but 21G men came oui
of the struggle unframed. One Captain
reports that out Of his company of 81 brave
men only nine ever returned. The pro-
portion of officers killed is immense. The
battle is finally decided by the bayonet
and position won which is the key of the
enemy's entertainments. The Tennessee
regiments have not the slightest disposition
"to die in the last DITCH" or to meet a des,
perate hand to hand encounter with a force
whose numbers their fears have so exag.
gerated. They have no great heart in ,hi,
'uDholy war;" and they surrendered il
mass.
What our losses are on these glorious
days, it is impossible yet to say. w,
learn that a single divsion-Gen. McCleS
nand's-l 500 men are killed, wounded ant
missing. Itisssaid that alanss 8 fys6BBr
in Southern Illinois aud Indiana mourns i
lost one; and that a dark cloud of grie
hangs over that battle field to thousands O
Western families.
We should net mourn them The- hav
d'ne the nobest thing that man con de-
Without hope of fame or chance of reward
they have sacrificed themselves for thei
country. Their dust will be the seed O
Liberty. On those silent graves by tn
| banks of the Cumberland will lie built u
all that our posrerity shall enjoy of Order
and Government, and Union; ard futur
historians will ascribe to those wintry day
of battle, the success AMI permanency Of
: great and glorious Republic Honor, the
to the Western dead! And let us not, i
the enjoyment of what those brave me
? have won for US and their posterity, forge
the mourning hearts and desOlate home
t which were the price Of our liberties.