Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1862-05-03
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.
PAINFUL sCENEs--AN ARMY OF sEXToNs--
TILE DEAD AND WOUNDED

TILE DEAD AND WOUNDED
Correspondence Of tic 81. Louis Republican.
On Thursday it was impossible to move
without caution, as dead men were lying
thickly everywhere for milcs-somctimes a
dozen in space of as many feet. No such
scene was ever before witnessed in America.
The opponents lay as they had fallen, often
the bodies of one heaped upon those of the
other. Wounded men, manglcd horses,
crushed bodies, extended so nterminably it
was impossible TO pass through them, and
the visiter would finally be compelled to
turn and rctracc his steps.
Rains had soaked the ground and covered
it with pools of water, and sometimes the
wounded could be seen crawling on to the
dead and lying there to keep of from the
damp earth. Many had died in that posi-
ton, and not few of the deaths were ca,1s-
ed by exposure. Physicians were busy.
laboring nobly, but instruments became
biunted and useless, and surgeons dropped
with fatigue at their posts before Il tiftieth
part of the work had been done.
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 pcturing walk as
far from St. Louisto the Fair Grounds among
dead and dying, stretched away out of sight
on either side. The woods, beyond our
picket guards, are being now explored, and
hundreds of injured abandoned by the enc
my on their retreat brought in. Every house
between here and Corinth is isahospita We
visited several of them and found the floor
covered with poor wretches, lying in pools
Of blood, their arms or legs torn off DAYS
passed without any nourishmcnt, and in
half the cases death had outstripped the
physicians and was coming to their relief
Certainly greater scene of widespread
misery never existed. The first day or two
the air was filled with groans, sobs, and
trcnzied curses, but now the sufferers are
quiet not from cessation of pain, but mere
exhaustion.
One poor fellow, boy, who could not
have been over fourteen, was living against
tree, a knife in his hand, with which he had
carved the letters John Dan. The n
was but partially finished, when death had
compelled him to give up the gloomy task
of carving his own epitaph. The terrible
destruction caused by cannon balls was evi-
dent in the sight of three bodies manglcd by
the same shot. The latter a twclve-punder,
had struck a fourth man, while he was evil
IDENTIFY in STOPPING posture, hitting immc-
diately on the top of the head, and driving
the fragments of skull downward into the
body, the shot remaining halfhidden between
the' shoulders. saw in three houses near
our outer pickets, and two miles from the
battle-ground, four wounded Rebel captains,
and thirty or forty privatcs Bcauregard as
he rctreated, bore back with him his wound
ed, leaving them in houses, barns and fence
corners by the way. 1t is thus they We're
strewn over so great space. One of the
officers was being carried to wagon as we
stopped, and in the height of dclirium waved
an arm above his head, cheering imaginary
companies on to attack.
1t will be week before all can be collect
ed and taken care of, as the further out our
pickets go, the thicker they find them
Now the battle is over it becomes subject
of wonder that the loss on both sides was
not even greater. For two days the bullets
flew without cessation, and passed like a
storm Of destruction through the woods and
camp. We were unable 10 find, over the
entire area of hundreds of acres, where the
sterncst fire took place, 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.