The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-03-20
Horrors OF the Battle Field.

horr0rs OF the Battle Field.
Official returns show 321 killed, 1854
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 gal
liant McClernand, in the thickest of the
tight at Donelson. One who was in
vited by Gen. McClernand to take
ride over the battle field, the morning
OF the surrender of the rebel fort and
army to Grant, describes the battle
ground as chiefly confined to the space
outside of the Notifications, extending
up the river bank distance of two
miles, to the point where Gen. Nc
Netherlands force rallied from the re-
tirement which they were at first forced
INTO by the impetuous charge of the
enemy. 1t was here that the grand
sortie was made by the rebels up the
river bank, with the intention of turn
ing our right flank, and cutting their
way through. Some ten or twelve
thousand men composed the force sent
out for this purpose. They advanced
under deadly fire of artillery, and
steadily drove Gen. McClernand's force
before them distance of fifty or sixty
rods. Our troops here made stand,
and being reinforced by one or two
regiments began the terrific assault be-
fore which the enemy were forced to
retreat The ground was contested
with desperation, and the slaughter on
both sides was immense. The eye-wit-
ness of the field saws:
The whole space Of two miles was
strewn with dead, who lay in every
imaginable shape and form. Federals
and rebels were promiscuously mingled,
sometimes grappled in the fierce death
throe, sometimes facing each other as
they gave and received the fatal shot
or thrust, sometimes laying across one
another, and again heaped in piles
which lay six or seven feet deep.
could imagine nothing more terrible
than the silent indications of agony
that marked the features of the pale
corpse which lay at every step. Tho
dead and rigid in every muscle, they
still writhed and seemed to turn to
catch the passing breeze for cooling
breath. Stark eyes gaping mouths,
clenched hands, and strangely con-
tracted limbs, seemingly drawn into the
smallest compass, as if by mighty eff
fort to rend asunder some irresistible
body which held them down to the tor
ture of which they died. One sat
against tree, and, with mouth and
eyes wide open, looked up into 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
musket, and the compression of the
mouth told of the determination which
would have been fatal to foe had life
ebbed minute later. A third clung
with both hands to bayonet which
was buried in the ground, in the act Of
striking for the heart of a rebel foe
Great numbers lay in heaps just AS the
fire of the artillery moved them down
maugling their forms into an almost un
distinguishable mass. Many of oui
men had evidently fallen victims to the
rebel sharpshooters, being pierced
through the head by rifle bullets, some
in the forehead, some in the eyes, 9th
ers in the bridge of the nose, in the
cheeks and in the mouth. This cir
cumstanee verified statement made te
me by rebel officer among the prison
ers, that their men were trained Il
shoot low and aim for the face, whilt
ours, as general thing, fred at ran
dom, and shot over their heads.
The enemy in their retreat carried
off their wounded and great many o
their dead, so that ours far outnum
bered them on the field. The scene o
action had been mostly in the woods
although there were two open places O
an acre or two where the fire had rage
furiously, and the ground was covered
with dead. All the way up to their in
trenchments the same scene of dealt
was presented. There were two mile
of dead strewn thickly, mingled wit
.. firearms, artillery, dead horses, and tn
paraphernalia of the battlefield.
was a scene never to be forgotten
never to be described.