The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer. (Bel Air, Md.) 1862-1864, 1862-11-15


to the dying and desperate, and to remove,
as far as their means Of carriage will al
low, those of whom there is some hope
Plunderers have been before them, and in
the dawn have gathered vile booty, and
perhaps dealt foully with the helpless
owners. The thirty thousand are sorted
a bit of colored rag, word, or figure
distinguishes the two parties in the con-
fiict which has riven new world. The
few sheds and barns in the neighborhood
are cleared for hospitals, in which the
wounded are laid thick, side by side, at
least out of sun, wind, and rain. An ar
my Of surgeons enter with their terrible
weapons, and soon "vast hole" is dug,
and filed with amputated limbs. That is
the least terrible form of wound. There
are horrors that no tongue can tell, and no
imagination conceive that has not SEEM
Of these thirty thousand the greater part
are very young, raw, and simple, having
some strange idea that they were fighting
for independence and the privileges Of
men and citizens. For an idea which is
either an unreasoning prejudice or po-
litical subtlety, and which need never
have existed had it not answered the pur-
pose of faction, these men lie on the
ground, wrecks of humanity, dying, or
doomed to be henceforth burdens to socie-
ty and themselves. Let us think what
we should do if by some sudden disaster
there lay that number of dead and woun-
ded men on the downs of pleasant Sur
rey. What panic would strike our ca
pacious and well-appointed hospitals
But there are already twenty thousand
sick and wounded soldiers at Washington,
where only one church can be spared for
Divine Service from hospital use, and
where long wooded structures, compared
to our toughest cowsheds, have already
been run up to receive those who cannot
be taken in elsewhere. This was the state
of Washington three weeks ago; and just
then there started from 'Antietam Creek"
the sad procession bringing the Federal
share of the wounded from field on
which thirty thousand men had lain in
agony, or past pain, the night before
But even this terrible aggravation added
to vast sum of horrors was only one of
many such additions. The war was ra-
ging on twenty such fields. The men
who thus fought and fell were but a rem
nant. They had come straight from a
swampy peninsula, in which disease wed
with the bullet, and where the intervals
were as deadly as the battles. The men
who fought what is called the Borodino of
the war were part of the 100000 who
survived twice their number.
What is there but suicidal madness
in such work as this The Roman poet
describes horses in their madness tearing
out their entrails with their own teeth
and devouring their own flesh. He adds a
prayer that Heaven may avert such hor-
ror from his friends, and infict it upon
the enemies Of his country. None have
prayed for this to the Americans, but it
has befallen them. This is what they are
doing, and We are satisfied we might as
we'll reason with an animal seized with
this madness as with these our kinsmen
and once fellow countrymen. 1t is at
tempted now to spread the horrid conta-
gion within the communities of the South
ern States, and there is quite as much
prospect of this process of dissolution
breaking out far North. 1t is vain, per-
haps to tell the unmoved spectators of all
this carnage that they win never restore
the Union, but we venture to put ques-
ton, which even their pride will allow to
be practical and worth good serious
consideration. Let US suppose the tide Of
war henceforth to turn, in the main, to
the Federal side; and let us conceive the
Union restored in such new form as
might be possible under the circum-
stances. 1t will, in that case, be one
form of Government instead of another
or rather one Government instead of two
or more. Will it be worth the sacrifice Of
a million more men, or even half a mil
lion or quarter of a million more ? A
conqueror of the barbarous old school
thought it worth the destruction of half
the human race, if he could thereby be-
come master of the remaining half
That was his calculation, and we, in
these days, call it nothing but savage
sort Of egotism. 1t was for his own sake
that is, for his vanity or his selfWill I
that he was ready to destroy half man
kind. It can be nothing else that irnpels
the Federal government to purchase uni
", if they can, at the cost of so many hui