Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1864-06-22
A Picture Of war.

From the New York Metropolitan Record. |
A battlefield in which masses of men |
are moved hither and thither by a guiding :
human intelligence, at one moment hurled |
with almost the CELEBRITY and deadly effect
of thunderbolts on this or that point, and
the next gathered up into solid columns
immoveable as the eternal hills battle
field in motion, as it were, with its soil
ploughed by charging squadrons, its at
mosphere heavy with the thunderouS
smoke and at intervals lit up with the
lurid lightning of war, is, it must be con-
fessed, fearfully magnificent spectacle,
and one well calculated TO impress the i'm
agination powerfully. 1t is wonderful to
zee intelligent human beings, under the
stern and salutary influence of discipline.
rivalling the precision of machinery, and,
IN the face of the enemy, executing the
most dangerous and complicated military
maneuvres. Glorious are the flashing
flags and ordered lines, the furious charge
and frantic rally, soul stirring the blaring
trump, the drum, the crashing cannon, and
the rafting volIey
But when the battle is over and the
human waves that surged across the field
are still and silent, and the tide of life
that gave it strength and fullness has ebbed
away, the battle field presents a different
sight Who can look on ii then with a
thrill of exultation? Where, then, the
quickening of the pulse, the rapid cours-
ing Of the blood, the exutation of the
spirits? Where the flashing eye and
flushing cheek, the wild excitement, the
fever of expectation, the temporary aber-
ration of mind, during whose continuance
reason and feeling were dethroned and
passion su2reme7 Gone, vanished with
the smoke of the last volley, died out
with the last sounds of strife 1t is a
graveyard now, a Haceldama, from which
we turn with horror and remorse.
Amid the details that have reached us
of the battles in the wilderness, there is
enough of agony and suffering to wiring
the kindly heart with sympathy, and to
sting the most callious into feeling There
lay the dying and the dead, the manned
and wounded, young and old, weltering
in their blood through the chilling night
and the long burning day. Poor fellows
theirs at least, was no lip devotion to
principle; they had sent no substitute to
the war they were not bleeding vica-
riously, nor dying by proxy; they had
asked no man to do that which they re-
fused to do, nor to brave that which they
shrank from facing Calamity did they
bear themselves through the conflict, and
yet we doubt not, as they lay upon that
hard fought field, their wish and hope,
their longing and desire was for peace.
The brawler and bragggart may clamor for
war, the truly brave man is not ashamed
TO raise his voice for peace. And surely
the battlefield can best teach its value,
for what uninspired tongue can equal the
mute eloquence of that inanimate preacher
of peace. Gang lowing phrases or sounding
periods touch the heart like pools of blood
and hills of slain? Can powerful argu-
ments or passionate pleadings move or
convince like the subdued means and ago
nized shrieks that ring above the battle
field, rising like the protest of outraged
humanity to heaven!
An element of horror not usually found
in battle-felds entered into and added to
the dire terrors of these scenes. Fire was
among the wounded The very battle
field was on fire. Some Union soldiers,
while preparing their food had inadver-
family set the dry leaves on fire, and the
flames went roaring and leaping over
acres, consuming everything in their way
The wounded, who lay gasping in the
sun, saw the approach of this new and
formidable foe, against whom fight alone
could give them any chance, and as they
could not fly braced themselves TO meet
him as they might What the Confede-
rates left undone he finished, and the
charrcd remains attested the extent of his
ravages This untoward accident caps
the climax of horror and inparts 10 the
battles of the Wilderness dread distinc-
ton. The inauguration shrinks aghast
from endeavoring to pierce the MYSTERY
that shrouds their last moments, and the
heart, in shuddering sympathy, turns from
this strange new horror on the field of
honor : but no ears save those dull As the