Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-03-05
Horrors Of the Battle Field.

! OfnclaI returns show 81 killed, lU04
wounded, and $50 missing in Gen. Nc
Clernand's Division at Fort Donelson.
Such is the terrible record OF the brave
Illinois Division led by the gallant McCler-
nand in the thickest Of the fight at Donel-
SON. One who was invited by Gen. Nc
Clernand to take a ride over the battle
field the morning of the surrender of the
rebel Fort and army to Gen. Grant, de-
scribes the battle-ground as chiefly con-
fined to the space outside of the fortifica-
tons, extending up to the river bank,
distance of two miles, to the point where
Gen. McClernand's force rallied from the
retirement which they were at first forced
into by the impetuOus charge of the enc
N.Y. 1t was here that the grand sortie
was made by the rebels up the river bank
with the intention OF turning our right
flank, and cutting their way through
Some ten or twelve thousand men COM
posed the force sent out for this purpose.
They advanced under deadly fire OF ar
tillery, and steadily drove Gen. MeCler-
nand's force before them q distance OF fif-
yAor sixty rods. Our troops here made a
stand, and having been reinforced by one
or two regiments, began the terrific assault
before which the enemy were forced to
retreat. The ground was contested with
desperation, and the slaughter on both
sides was immense. The eyewitness of
the field says:
The whole space of two miles was
strewn with dead, who lay in every imag-
inable shape and form. Federals and reb-
els were promiscuously mingled, some
times facing grappled in the fierce death
throe, sometimes facing each other as they
gave and received the fatal shotor thrust,
sometimes lying across one another, and
again heaped in piles which lay six or
seven deep. could imagine nothing
more terrible than the silent indications
of agony that marked the features of the
pale corpses which lay at every STEP
Though dead, and rigid in every muscle,
they still writhed and seemed to turn to
catch the passing breeze for cooling breath.
Staring eyes, gaping mouths, clercned
hands and strangely contracted limbs,
seemingly drawn into the smallest com
pass as II by mighty effort to rend assun-
der some irresistible bond which held
them down to the torture Of which they
] Led. One sat against tree, and, with
mouth and eyes wide open, looked up in
| to the sky as if to catch glance at its
! feeting spirit. Another clutched the
branch of an overhanging tree, and hung
/ half suspended, as IN the death pang he
raised himself partly from the ground
The other hand grasped his faithful mus
ket, and the compression Of the mouth
told Of the determination which would
have been fatal to foe had life ebbed q
minute later. 4 third clung with both
hands TO bayonet which was buried in
the ground, in the act of striking for the
heart OF q rebel foe. Great numbers lay
in heaps, Just as the fire OF the artillery
moved them down, mangling their forms
into an almost undistinguishable mass
Many Of our men had evidently fallen vic
TINS to the rebel sharpshooters, for they
were pierced through the head by rifle
bullets, some in the forehead, some in the
eyes, others on the bridge of the nose, in
the cheeks and in the mouth. This cir
cumstance verified a statement made TO
me by rebel officer among the prisoners,
that their men were trained to shoot low
and aim for the face, while ours, as a gem
eral thing, fired at random, and shot over
their heads.
The enemy, in their retreat, carried off
their wounded and great many of their
dead, so that ours far outnumbeFed them !
on the field. The scene ofaction had been
mostly in the woods, although there were
two open places Of an acre or two where
the fight had ragged furiously, and the
ground was covered with dead. All the |
way up to their intrenchments the same |
scene of death was presented. There
were two miles of dead strewn thickly, |
mingled with firearms, artillery, dead
horses, and the paraphernalia of the bat |
tle-feld. 1t was scene never to be Tor |
gotten-never to be described.
On Monday sixty priyateSspf the Him
ois llth, gathered upon the battlefield, |
were laid in a row Awaiting burial. An
officer stated that he stood upon little |
hillock where the battle ragged the tierc-
est. and counted within circle Of twenty |
feet seventeen dead bodies, ten of whom
he could reach with the point of his sword !
without moving from his position. As |
late as Wednesday considerable numbers |
of the dead were still on the field unbur-
led. and some of the wounded laid in the
woods three days and nights before they
were found.