The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-10-03
From the Army Of the Cumber.
land

The dreadful struggle that for days past
has been holding the loyal public suspend
ed by the heart strings, has demonstrated
at once the splendid courage of our sol
diers and the desperate energy of the reb-
els. The latter, massing the very flower
and 0hivalry of all their armies; the men
from Virginia, from Arkansas, from eve
rywhere, hardened to service, lions in BRAY
cry and "game" to the last; the leaders
whose names have beeu towers of strength
among them, have hurled themselves in
vastly superior numbers tYpon the Federal
walls, built up of the breasts of brethren
and friends, and have been gloriously
withstood. Before this crystalization of
the rebellion, the Army of the Cumberland
has not gone down; has not lost one spark
Of hope; has not recrossed the Tennessee;
has punished the enemy without aid has
suffered without complaint. The expected
reinforcementsW were awaited hour by hour,
and swift rumor had it that the rebel Ew-
ell was fastening forward to intercept
Burnside, and crush, if he could, the cup
of good cheer with which he was hasten
ing.
Taken all in all, it has been, thus far,
one of the fercest conflicts of the war,
and the final result will have perhaps the
most important bearing of any battle upon
the tremendous issues of this controversy
Of lead, steel and iron. Your readers will
have aching hearts when they think of the
gallant fellows who have fallen, of the
thousands who are languiShing, racked
with pain, disfgured with CHASTITY wounds,
parched with heat and sufocated with
dust. But could you see them, as have.
and see how stout of heart they are yet;
how they live on the hope of eventual vic
tory; how they glory in ''Rosey,' the flash
of pain would be half forgotten, and the
flush of pride would dry the just-fallen
kon %ta al, all
ling manhood of Western men is sublime.
1t is nothing less. I do net mean so much
the rage of the charge upon the field of
battle, but the more than patient, the glo-
rious fortitude with which they bear up in
the succeeding hours of anguish. See
| them scattered everywhere under the
moonlight, borne upon stretchers, hurried
away in ambulances, loaded into baggage
wagons whose motion reminds you Of a
ride upon trip-hammer, packed in box
cars, at Bridgeport, their poor, stiffened,
mutilated limbs quivering with pain-and
tell me how much the friends at home
know about the horrors of war, how little
they know of the tremendous price set
upon this land of ours-a price enhanced
by every day that flies.
At the end of each days fight the regi-
mental flags blossomed out like flowers of
strange beauty upon the field of death, and
the broken regiments gathered around
them, and there upon the ground ate their
rations, believed in Rosecaans and took
courage, and there they were when morn
ing broke, in line of battle and ready for
another day! When Longstreet's men
came up confident and strong-came up
within speaking distance of our front. they
cried, "We've come to show Bragg's men
how to fight!' but when our lines were
tipped with ceaseless fire, and the old, dead
echoes OF the Cumberland We're reused
from their mountain lairs by the roar of
Federal artillery. and the gray fell in heaps
and the blue in clusters, and our boys never
| f1inched, and fell back under the pressure of
three to one, five to one, only to advance
staggering vet stOutly over the dead, then
| the Wanting rebels cursed the Western
| men and swore by all the gods they had
! the "lesser gods"-they never met men
made of such stuff before, confess I
thanked GoD there IS West whose grand
est growth is men. And what storms OF
lead they were! Take an October rain
beating upon a window pane, and give
each pattering drop a musket's tone, and
you have the tempest that drove full on
mems brOws and breasts that day. Cut
| thunder up into syllables and you have the
cannonade. Bring down great clouds and
set them rolling to and fro and huggng
earth, rent with streams and splinters OF
red fire, and you have the drapery, if
"
Light is quicker than sound; the line OF
blne is dotted along with little puffs OF
smoke and little flashes Of flame and after
| that the crash of musketry; it is here,
! it is there, it is everywhere, and the
great guns swallow cheer and crash and
groan and all; the whole world to you is a
mighty voice, and heart and thought stand
still together. It is nothing to rhyme
| about, to pirate about, and you stand as the
host of old before the thunders of Sinai,
| and are dumb.
You know where Rosecrans was; head
quarters were not at Bridgeport Or Chatta-
nooga, but in the thick of the fight. Press.
| ing right up to him was the rebel front, and
regiments from Mississippi, Texas and
Georgia were scooped out of the rebel food
and made prisoners within short hal
mile of the Generals position.
The roll of Federal killed and wounded
will seem appalling to you. The loss is
indeed severe, and as we bring it nearer
home it is terrible The light has gone ou
Of many a home there when the life wen
out of many heart here. But must tel
you that very large proportion of the
wounds are in the hand or arm, and O
these l saw hundreds in the left, struck az
it was extended along the musket. Hun
dreds again received shots in the right arm
at the moment of making ready to fire.
|
day, had medical care for the first time to
night, four days of fostering anguish, bu
not one word of repining; it was the hes
that could be done; it was the fortune O
war, and as one of them said, as h,
craunched bullet that he might bette
bear the pain of an arm swathed in CORY
wooden and black as the arm of heather
fate, "Rosey's all right yeti" and h
clinched if with an oath that the recordin:
angel must have dropped tear upon 'an(
blotted out forever" 4. r-s
And "Rosey" is all right. He nigh
have taken q step backward across tn,
Tennessee, but he did not. He has don,
better. He drove the rebels miles yester
day; reinforcements were marching il
behind them. Fear not, faint hearts
Gen. Rosecrans, trusting in God, gun
powder, a good cause and the soldiers 0
the West, will bring out triumph. It vii
be costly, but glorious. All the wounded
that can walk are moving to the rear tn
road to Bridgeport is lined with them
trains are running thence to Stevenson
laden with the sufferers. The field hospi
tails are thronged. Convalescents are be
ing pushed out from quarters along thu
| wav iowa r6c Nashville to ROOM e.,