Winchester journal. [volume] (Winchester, Indiana) 1862-1863, 1863-10-02

The mir was made hideous, unearth-
~, with shrieking monsters and with
the stencil from the bodies OF dis
Inferred soldiers. Hades seemed to
have opened wide it, yawning mouth
and showered upon Us it, burning
elements-irc and birthstone. Hor-
rible, sudden death was around YOU
every where; at any moment YOU
were liable 10 fall mangled and bleed
inc. Was il not . time for serious
thoughtg Instead, witty expressions,
the jest, lively repartee, laughter
horrible imprccations. \ closer shot
than usual. narrow escape from q
piece of shell, causing one 10 start
and dodge. would "set the table in I
roar" And this lodging business, /
| can tell YOU, is not confined TO your
coward alone. From a General down
To the lowest private, have seen
them all guilty alike. "Selfpreser
walton is the first law OF nature. -
You hear this Internal thing coming,
seemingly right in line with your
head. o. that sound. 1t takes hold
of YOU irresistibly; after the danger
is passed, bob goes your head; and
you straighten up, looking and feel
ing very foolish
At daylight all the infantry with
the exception of our Co. and e.. was
taken back in the rear of our works
out of danger, it being n needless
exposure Of life TO keep them under
the fire of the rebel batteries on
James and Sullivan Islands The
rebels would not dare to charge our
works i'm the light of day when our
gunboats and land batteries would
have fair play upon their columns.
And another thing. they had placed
it beyond their power TO attempt an
assault on our works. The innu-
merable torpedoes that were planted
, between the two contending parties,
would have operated rs feartully
against them rs upon our own forces
had they attempted it. There was
scarcely rod of ground free from
these dastardly, cowardly weapons
of destruction. Kegs of all shapes
and sizes, filed with powder, and en-
tirely buried under the sand with the
I exception of an inch or two of the
D cap or fuse by which it was to be eX
\ plodcd. Generally a small boarC
was laid over this cap, which The
weight of a couple of ounces would
explode; and then good bye to the
+ unlucby wight who had pressed th'
C weight lnterspersed with these tor
pedoes were large Is inch shells
capped and primed and ready to ex
plode at the least pressure. Oh, these
1 rebels are heathenish set! TIL,
=; chirolry won't even fight in decen
n and civilized manner after all thei
: braggadOcio. l ran around owe
ground that night in which the mex
=" day was found quite a number o
i torpedoes while engaged in widen
: ing the trench. 1t was certainly
Y kind providence that | was not blow
= to atoms-or ''sky high" at least
At daylight. on the 9th our par
: allels were within % yards of Wag
ner, the stars and stripes wavin;
: proudly within that distance of tn
> Fort BY 10 a. IN. the iron clad
; moved UP as close rs possible t
Wagner, assisting the land batterie
y in their work of destruction. Shat
y tered gun carriages and timbers use
L iii the fort were ripped up and scat
tered high in air. The splinte
, proof on the magazine went flying i
every direction. Great clouds c
II sand would rise thirty feet in ali
If as the huge shells from our gun
: would burst among their sand bags
n BY far the strongest Fort which tn
enemy has here was thus being tor
u to pieces and leveled with the orounC
y Our parallels were approachin
in close every hour: and we were i
more danger of being hit by our ow
shells than those of the enemy.
were useless 20 record the man
re narrow escapes from wounds an
ir death. ~ MISS dc, YOU know
ct | had made some coffee, and "Alf,
and l were sitting down quietly ell
ioying our dinner, when-dash
: came a shower of sand which spoi
; ed our piece of bread covered wit
ID currant jelly, covered our faces an
filed our mouths tell YOU, we fe
gritty for a short time. This occur
red several times during orr stay =