The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-11-04
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NJ Y r. EV Z N G E.

We metin the beginning of the action, L
and my enemy, Richard Withers-he rebel.
Federalist he on foot, I mounted. 1t
matters not why hated him with the fer
.cest wrath of nv nature The heart know
eth its own bitterness land the details, while
most painful to me, would be of trihing in
.terest to You. Suffice it that our feud was
net political one. For ten years we were
the closest intimates, that the, same studies,
the same tastes, and the same aims co1ld make
sus was the elder of the two, and stronger.
physically comparatively friendless as the
world takes it, and had no near relatives
Young, solitary and visionary we were, it Is
hard to make you understand what we were to
each other. Up to this period of our estrange.
ment, working together, eating together,
sleeping together, l can safely say thatfwe had
not grief, not pleasure or yexation that
we did not share with almost boyish single
heartedness But one single day changed all.
We rose in the morning dear friends and lay
down at night bitter foes. was a man of ex-
.tremes either loved or hated with the whole
strength ofmy heart. The past was forgotten
in the present. The ten years Of kindness, of
congeniality, of almost womanly kindness,
were erased as with a sponge. We looked
each other in the face with angry, searching
eyes-said but few words (our rage was too
deer to be demonstratiye) and parted. Then
in my solitude dashed my clenched hand
upon the Bible. and vowed passionately: 81
may wait ten years, Richard Wirhers !! [ may
wait twenty, thirty, if you will, but sooner or
,later, I..swear shall have my revenge?
And this was the way we met.
.L8oDder if he thought of that day when he
laid his hand upon my bride rein and looked
up at me with his treacherous blue eyes. /
scarcely think he did, or he could not have
given. me thatlook He was beautiful a
girl indeed, the contrast of his far, aristo-
cratic face with the regular outline and red
,curving lips, to my own rough, dark exterior,
might have been partly the secret of my for
mer attraction to him.. But the loveliness of
an angel if it had been his would not have
saved him from me then. There was pistol
in his hand, but before he had time to dis
charge it, I cut at him with my sword, and as
the line swept on like a gathering wave, /
saw him stagger, under the blow, throw up
his arms and go down with the press. Bit
terly as ]; hated him the CHASTITY face haunted
nae the long day through.
You all remember how it was at Fredericks-
burg. How we crossed the river at the wrong
point, and under the raking fire of the enemy,
were SO disastrously repulsed.
1t was a sad mistake, anl fatal to many a
brave Eeart. When night fell, lay upon the
field among dead and wounded 1 was COM
paratively, helpless. A ball had shivered the
cap of my right knee; and my shoulder was
laid open with a sabre cut. The latter bied
profusely /; but by dint of knotting my hand
kerehief tightly around it, 1 managed to
staunch it in measure. For my knee l could
do nothing. Consciousness did not forsake
me, and the pain was intense; bnt from the
moans and walls of the men about me, judged
that others had Jared worse than I. Poor fell
lows there was many mothers darling suf-
fering there. Many of my comrades, lads of
eighteen or twenty, who lad never seen a
night from home until they Joined the army,
spoiled pets of fortune, manly enough at heart
but children in years and constitution, who
had been used to have every little ache and
scratch compassioned with an almost e&traya-
CANT sympathy-there they lay, crippled and
gashed, and bleeding5 crushed and dying,
huddled together-so1ns where they had fall
en-, some where the 6a9 weakly crawled upon
their hands and d<knees--and never woman 8
touch to bind uP their wounds, or a woman's
voice to whisper gentle consolation. 1t was
pitchy dark, and a cold miserable rain was fall
'iDg upon us; .thetyery heavens weeping over
our miseries: Then through the darkness and