The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1862-04-01

their breath for deadly purpose. The
suspense is awful. 1t cannot last.
Do you not hear hundred hearts beat
across the plain !? Anxiety has made
the roar of battle almost inaudible, so
keenly is the sense upon the rack.
Five thousand throats are roaring with
triumph.
Brief triumph. The batteries are lost.
Our men have been overpowered by
numbers. They retire, and blood marks
their progress, and many dead are aban-
doned.
The recaptured guns are revenging
themselves. Their shot and shell are
tearing up the ground, and tearing open
brave bosoms, and making history and
peopling graves.
The batteries are sought once more.
We win them back with blood. We are
hurryIng them off, The rebels stare out
of malignant eyes, and curse through
trm-set teeth.
Triumph is about to crown our efforts,
when large force of the enemy, repuls-
ed by General Davis from that section of
Pea Ridge known as Leetown, lhrongs
to the rescue. A dozen combats over
the guns, and the contest is still unde-
cided when the darkness gathers aud
| through the night the enemy are seen
bearing off the twice captured, twice
recaptured guns.
Nature is no longer an impartial wit
ness. She draws the curtain, and the
camp fires blaze along the roads and
lightup the trees. Mans Pandemonium
is profaning the holy night.
Midnight comes, and the scattered
words of the sentinel are heard and the
tederalists and rebels are sleeping on
their arms, dreaming it may be, of the
time when they were friends and broth
ers, and America had not become one
vast military camp.
The stars, too, are keeping watch on
the battements Of Heaven. They chal.
lenge no one. They seem to say to all
the weary and worn, +" Come hither
Here is peace.
Speak they, or be forever silent, there
are many spirits in the air seeking the
peace that is not of earth.
THE THIRD DAYS BATTLE.
AT six O'Clock our guns opened on the
enemy, and our fire was returned from
twenty pieces. The enemy's shot passed
above our heads. Our cause was grow
ing darker.
This day must win or lose the battle.
As yet the fortunes of war incline not to
our side. We have reason to be alarmed.
but hope and courage are strong coun-
selors, and add strength to weak arms.
Gen. Sigel observed new positions for
our operations. We plant six batteries
at different points commanding their
principal forces. A fire of ball is shat
tering the space with its roar.
The enemy's list of mortality is swell
ing. They do not understand our great
advantages. They turn pale. and hesi-
tlte to advance. No time is given them
for reflection. They are seged In their
souls perplexity, while judgment tosses
in fevered sleep.
Our army moves forward.
Our entire infantry is engaged. The
rebels meet our dreadful volleys of mus
kerry for quarter of an hour, but their
firing sackens.
Still our batteries are forcing the YER
diet of the outraged nation into their
startled souls.
The cannon answers the musketry-
the musketry replies to the cannon.
Every inch of ground appears alive
with troops. Every twig and dry leaf
seems ablaze. The balls are falling like
the large drops of summer shower.
The Pentecost of war is descending.
The rebels can endure no longer the
sheet of flame out of which so death and
pain in thousand forms. They have
lost their faith in their bad cause and
themselves. They are panic stricken.
They fly, and roar of victory follows
them as the waves Of the river the lean
and hungry shore.
They turn not back. Two of their Gen
erals have received their mortal wounds.
and the word is Save himself who
can"
The Yankees have beaten them, and
their star has set over the yegdureless
ridge of this hard fought field.
The birds twitter overhead. The sun
shines warmer and clearer. The atmos,
phere of blood is purified by the feeling
that it was shed in sacred cause.
The spring greets tho victors, and
kisses their burning brows with the same
pure lips that call forth the early flowers.
Nature rejoiees over the triumph OF prin
ciple, for Nature is the order and the
law.
The rebels are fastening away. The
Federalists pursue the broken columns.
and the breezes come waiting the vieto.
rious shouts and the incense Of the youth
lul march, revealing that all is well, and
that the future is secure.
TUE Loss on BOTH SIDES.
Our loss cannot be known at this time.
but il must be in the vicinity Of | 700
400 killed aud some 1900 wounded,
most of them slightly. Our officers,
contrary 10 the past experience of this
war, suffered little. though they expos
ed themselves reckessly, as Americans
always will do on the battle field.
The rebel loss viii never, | presume.
be accurately ascertained, as they are
lying all over the ridges, in the rayines,