Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1863-07-10

very bell OF IRE t1ab amazed Inc OLDEST omceTS /
They burst iE the yard-burst next TO the fen |
ees on both sides, garnished as usual with the
bitched horses Of aids and orderIies. The fas- |
tened animals reared and plunged with terror.
Then one fell, then another-sixteen lay dead
and maueled before the firing ceased, still fas-
tened by their haIters, which gave the express
sion of being wickedly tied up to die painfully.
These brute victims of a cruel war touched all
hearts. Through the midst Of screaming and
exploding shells, an ambulance driven by its
frenEied conductor at full speed, presented to
all of us the marvellous spectacle of horse
going rapidly on three legs. A hinder one
had been shot of at the hook. A shell tore
up the little step at the headquarters cottage,
and ripped bags Of oats as with Saife. A
mother soon carried of one Of its two pillars.
Soon spherical case burst opposite the open
doOr-anotber ripped through the low garrett
The remaining pillar went almost Immediately
to the howl Of a fixed shot that WhitwoTth
must have made. During this fire the horses
at twenty and thirty feet distant were receiv-
ing their death, and soldiers in Federal blue
were torn to pieces in the road, and died with
the peculiar yell that blend the extorted cry OF
pain with horror and despair. Not an orderly
not an ambulance-not stragler was to be
seen upon the plain swept by this tempest Of
orchestral death, thirty minutes after it CON-
menced. Were not one hundred and twenty
pieces of artillery trying to cut from the field
every battery we had in position to resist their
purpOsed infantry attack, and to sweep away
the slight deienses behind which our infantry
were waiting? Forty minutes-6fty minutes
counted watches that ran Oh 50 languidly.
Shell through the lower room. A she'll into
the chimney that daringly did net explode
Shells in the yard. The air thicker and fuller
and more deafening with the bowling and
whirripg Of these Internal missiles. The Chief
of Staff struck-Seth Williams-loved and
respected through the army, separated from in
slant death by two inches of space vertically
measured. An Aid bored with fragment of
iron through the bone of the arm. Another,
cut with an exploded piece. And the time
measured on the sluggish watches was one hour
and forty minutes
Then there was luIl, and we knew that the
rebel infantry was charging. And spleudidly
they did this work-the highest and severest
test that soldiers are made OF. Hills division
in the line of battle, came first on the double
quick, their muskets at the right shoulder
shift" Longstreets came as the support, at
the usual distance, with war cries and savage
insolence as yet untutored by defeat. They
rushed in perfect order across the open field,
up to the very muzzels ofthe guns, which tore
lanes through them as they came. But they
met men who were their equals in spirit, and
their superiOrs in tenacity. There was never
better fighting since Thermopyale than was
done yesterday by our infantry and artillery.
The rebels were over our defeses. They had
cleared cannOniers and horses from one of the
guns, and were whirling it around to use upon
rs. The bayonet drove them back. But so
hard pressed was this brave infantry that at
one time, from the exhaustion of their ammn-
milton, every battery npon the principal crest
of attack was silent, except Cowen's. His
service Of grape and canister was awful. 1t
enabled our lire, out numbered two to one,
first to beat back Longstreet, and then to charge
upon him, and take large number of his men
and himself prisoners. Strange sight! So
terrible was our musketry and artillery fire,
that when Armsteads brigade was checked i'll
it's charge, and stood reeling, all of its men
dropped their muskets and crawled on their
hands and knees underneath the stream of shot
till close to our troops. where they made signs
of surrendering. They passed through our
ranks scarcely noticed, and slowly wen. down
the slope to the road in the rear.
Before they got there, the grand charge OF
Ewell, solemnly sworn to and carefully prepra'
ed, had failed.
The rebels had retreated to their lines, and
,ol fhe cfr fNf zboll aT6 frOu
their 12O guns. Those who remained at the
riddled headquarters will never forget the
crouching, and lodging, and running of the
butternut colOred captives, when they got un-
der this, their friends fire. 1t was appalling
to as good soldiers even as they were.
What remains to say of the fight? 1t strug-
gled surlily on the middle of the horse shoe on
the west, grew big an angry on the heel at the
south west, lasted there till eight o'clock in
the evening, when the fighting 9th Corps went
joyously by as reinforcement through the
wood, bright with cofee-po.s on the fire.
leave details to my excellent friend and as
sociate, Mr.. Henry. My pen is heavy. Oh,
We dead, who, at Gettysburg, have baptized
with your blood the second birth of Freedom
in America, how you are to be envieN
rise from grave whose wet clay have pas
sionately kissed, and look up and see Christ
spanning this battlefield with his feet and
reaching fraternal and lovingly up to Heaven.
His right hand opens the gate of Paradise
with his left be beckons to these mutilated
bloody, swollen forms to ascend.
INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE.
Captain Gushing, Company A. 4th Regular
Artillery, was killed, and his battery suffered
severely. The gallantry of this officer is be-
yond praise. Severely wounded early in the
afternoon, he refused to leave his post beside
his guns, but continued to pour grape and can
ister into the advancing columns of the rebels
until they had reached the very muzzles of bis
pieces, and sure of their capture, we're attempt
! ing to turn them upon our forces, when they
were driven off by our infantry. At this mo
ment Captain Gushing received his death
wound and fell lifeless to the earth. Heaps
of corpses and wounded in front of his battery
this morning, told terrible tale of the effect
iveness of its fire.
| None of the company were taken prisoners
by the rebels. After the battle but one CUR
of this battery remained unipjured-the rest
having been dismounted or destroyed by the
terrible fire of the enemy, which for the time
was concentrated upon the batteries on this
part of the field In front of this position fe l
dead the rebel Gen. Dick Garnett, who was
courageously leading his men in this charge up
on our batteries on Grow Hill. The rebe
Gen. Armstead was also wounded here, while
advancing at the head of his brigade.
| About fifty yards in front Of our batteries
was a stone wall running from our center in s
south-westernly direction, behind which laiC
several of our regiments, picking off the enemy
as they advanced up the slope of the hill