Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1863-07-21
ThIIIIng Description Of a Bat
lie Scene.

NAC SUN &c
The correspondent of the New York
Times thus describes the scene ut General
Msade's headquarters during the recent
terrible engagement in the height Orhood
Of Gettysburg:
eleven O'clOck-twelve O'clock-one
O'clock.
eli the shadow cast by the tiny farm
house 10 by 20, which Gen. Meade has
made his headquarters, lay wearied staff
officers and tired reporters. There was
not wanting to the peacefulness of the
eceDe the singing of q bird, which had u
nest IN peach tree within the"stiuy yard
OF the whitswashed cottage. In the midst
OF this wGrbliDg, a shell screamed over the
house instantly followed by another, and
1aother, aud Ia moment the air was full
Ut che most complete artillery prelude to an
EOfantry battle that was ever exhited. Ey-
cry form and size of shell known to British
and to American gunnery shrieked, whirl-
ed, mOaDed, whistled and WrathGully luts
tered over our ground. AS many as six
In q second, constantly two in a second.
bursting over and screaming over and
around the headquarters, made q very hell
fire that amazed the oldest officers. They
burst in the yard-turst next to the fence
ON both sides, garnished as usual with
the hitched horses of aids and orderlies.-
The fastened horses reared and plunged
with terror. Then one fell, then another
sixteen lay dead AID mangled before the
ire ceased, still fastened by their halters.
which gave the expression of being wick.
eddy tied up to die painfully. These brute
victims OF cruel war touched all hearts
Through the midst Of q storm of screaming
and broken shells, an ambulance, driven
by Its irenzied conductor at full speed
presented to all of US the marvellous spec
tacle OF horse going rapidly on three Iegs.
a hinder one had been shot of at the
hook.
A shell tore up the little step of the head
quarters cottage, and ripped bags of oats
as with knife. Another soon carried IF
its two pillars. Soon a spherical case burst
opposite the open dOor-another ripped
through the low garrett. The remaining
pillar went almost Immediately to the howl
Of q fxed shot that Whitwo.th must have
made.
During this 6Ee the horses at twenty
and thirty feet distant were receiving their
death, aud sOldiers in federal blue we're
turn to pieces in the road and died with
the peculiar yells that blend the extorted
cry of pain with horror and dispair. Not
an oFderly-Dot an ambulance, not strag-
gler was to be seen upon the plain swept
by this tempest of orchestral death thirty
minutes after it commenced. We're not
one hundred and twenty pieces Of artillery
trying to cut from the field every battery
We had in position to resist their proposed
infantry attack, aud to sweep away the
slight defenses behind which our infantry
were WaitiDg7
Forty minutes fifty minutes-counted
on watches that rau! Oh 80 lauguidly.
Shell through the two lower rooms. A
shell in the chimney that daringly did not
explode Shells 10 the yard. The air thick.
or and fuller and more deafening with the
bowling aud whirring of these internal
missiles. The cheif Of staff-Seth Williams
loved aud respected through the whole
army, separated from instant death by two
inches Of space vertically measured. An
aide bored with fragment ofiron through
the bone Of the arm. Another, cut with
end exploded piece.
And the time measured on the sluggish
watches was one hour and forty minutes"