Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1864-09-16
Fer the delaware Gazette.
NOTES IN DIXIE.
XIV.
NEAR ATLANTA, GA,
August Path, 1864.

NEAR ATLANTA GA,
August Path, 1864. J
The thermometer at the moderate altitude
of 79 in the shade, delicious breeze softly
whispering among the dark branches OF over
shadowing pines and dallying with the plant
| canvass of my tent, the emerald earth breath
ing aroma from its lately moistened bosom
now covered with a dappled carpetipg of
light and shade blue patches Of Southern sum
mer sky interspersed by snowy clouds whose
| radiant whiteness seems almost too pure and
stainless foreartb, the golden tongue of music
vexing the lazy air with amOrous echoes
through the hills and valleys-sueh, my dear
! Gazette, are some of the circumstances and
surroundings amid which propose once more
to continue these Notes. Nature retains
something of her lovliHess even while great
armies confront each other, and reserves a
voice of harmony aud touch Of beauty even
! for the war-worn soldier, provided he will turn
aside to listen and observe. And so power
| ful is the charm during these rich and glori-
Gus summer days that it subdues all the dis
fractions of the camp and silently steals upon
| the mind despite the unnatural influences and
associations occasioned every day and every
hour by angry strife between man and his fel-
low. The sun smiles, the dew glitters upon
the grass, the songsters twiter in the groves,
day declines in serene glory, night dons her
! iewelIed mantle of gemmed ebony, and nature
day by day calmly and serenely pursues her
course diffusing peace and beauty every where
as if to shame guilty men who devote night
and dav to the destruction of their lives aud
happiness.
a strange, medley life is this OF mingled
pleasure and pain. SubIimity and horror
calm and unrest. Thrilling in lis episodes, al
most unbearable in its montony, severe in its
privations, terrible in its trials, noble in its
aims, demoraIiziDg in its tendencies, grand in
its events, fearful in its perils, mysterious IN
its uncertainties, it develops some of the best,
worst, and most singular traits of human char
acter. Among the latter may be ranked the
utter abandon which army lie eultivates.-
Having surrendered the control of himself
and his destnies TO others, the soldier learns
to be forgetiul of the past, unmindtuI OF the
| future and almost regardless OF ihe present.
The extreme test Of continual exposure to
danger breeds in him a sort Of careless uncon-
Germ about matters less important than life
and death, and cultivates power OF will and
strength of manhood which death itself can
scarcely daunt or subdue. 1t is emphaticaly
true that the experience of war makes men
strong, aud it is probably fortunate that this
severe schooling has befalen this great people,
inasmuch as it will bring them up to lofty
standard OF manly strength and heroism which
they otherwise would probably have never at
tanned. Let those be commiserated who are
l. xypak
avail themselves OF the glorious opportunities
of this great crisis. ibout the manhood !
courage to stand by the truth they fain would
sioop in humble submission to traitors and
surrender the dearest, holiest trust ever COM
unitted to the keeping of free people Un-
worthy inberitors of freedom unworthy OF the
sublime history of the past and the sublimer
Iope of the present, unworthy of their day and
generation, unwerthy of the land of their
birth
Next to the engagement itself there is per-
} haps nothing about battle which attracts
more interest than the place where it occurred.
It was my SAD pleasure 20 revisit recently the
scene of the fight near Peach Tree Greek on
the Goth of July. 1t was calm, quiet eve
ming. and the mellowed light of the declining
sun fell softly upon the freshly made graves OF
our fallen heroes. Southern songsters CARROLL
ed their vesper melodies undisturbed among
the trees newly SCARED and splintered by SHELLS
and bullets, and the cricket chirped his eve
ming ditty along the. lonely sward so lately
crimsoned by the blood OF patriot and rebel
) Winding along the crests of the hill and
through the thick, somber forests the hastily
built breast-work pursued its zig-zag course
J aud marked the position of our line as it was
, formed and held during the sanguinary con-
fct. All the ground was strewn with the
rubbish and debris of the battle and told all
too plainly of its hurry, its terror and destruc-
tiop. The dead had been gathered together
! and carefully buried in groups, their names
and regiment, "spelled by the unlettered muse,
beinp plainly carved on boards which were
fastened by the graves. And there in thai
lonely Georgian forest those patriot martyrs
for our country's cause, "each in his marrow
cell forever laid" peacefully sleeps their long
last sleep disturbed no more by the angry
tbunders that still eche about their quiet rest
j ing place than by ~
a 'Summer evenings's latest sigh
+ That shuts the rose "
And their sepulchers though obscure and un
freauented are not unhonored. Around then
in perpnial freshness are entwined the memo
- ries and affections of all WHO admire valer anC
v love liberty and law. Nor is any wreatheC
II monument needed to perpetuu1e the fame o.
o enhance the glory of their occupants. 1t il
as imperiehabe as the rights OF man, immut
able as truth when their open enemies anC
Il doubtful friends shall have perished and have
le been forgotten, their names will be spoken a
t. household words and will live and burn i'm
mortal.
They do not die-they do not die
Souls of the brave and justf
It's not a towards thought say
pass again to dust
Ys live thrsuEh every aEe-y' are given
To breathe in hearts OF slaves
The patriot flame ye drew from heaven
That sleeps not in your graves"
/ had hoped to be able by this ime to n