Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-05-20
Railgg atrlIigeuter
From Fredericksburg.

| - SAAO 49, = 44AbAA0"
and Incidents after the Great Bat
tles-=Heart EiCkening Sights
What Slavery has Cost
FRRDERioKssuRG, Va, Sunday Morning,
May 10. 1854
Is IL In harmony with Gods laws thai
this family OF martins, dwelling against
the side Ol the mansion opposite my win
dow, should make this Sabbath morning
noisy With operattc soag and bird talk
aud should auiter hOueward and away
from home. on short Journeys of pleasure
with Infinite variety OF love talk to each
other, aud very capsrs OF song in the ait
as they come and as they gO-that these
martins should do this, aud that, 1T the
same time. a line of ambulauces, whose
beginning cannot see aud whose end |
cannot measpte, should ill the street
beneath the ioy9ns bird md sbe loa[iSd
i3Witll ddll a lldIn The " WiIdernGs5 battie.
held, who groan, and call Tor cold wafer,
and wonder why they waltz There is har.
mony, uuques,lUnabIy, between the noisy
happiness OF the songsIers of the air and
the ssrablishmept OF Freedom upon tue
destruction Of Slavery by revolution and
war. The freedom OF a happy ciViliz alton
and the freedom Ol Oiris are not OF wide.
apart kinship-And civilization comes not
save through blood, aud wounds, aud
death.
This train of wounded is heavy with mud
I-the mnles and harness are hid with mud.
II has come twelve miles over such roads
as war alone makes. In places the larger
wagons had 10 be pried out OF the deep
holes with trimmed trees: The delays OF
the entire train from this cause were fre-
queDt and long. The depth of these holes,
and the instihct aud habit Of the lead aud
middle team Of mules TO trot away from
wagon iu a sudden descent, in order to
escape the Whipple trees, Inflicted upon the
unfortunate wounded, blows and jars ex.
cruciatingly tOrturing aud that wasted their
| remaining vitality. Over every rod of tho
way ana in the best two horse spriug Am-
balances, a iarring motion was cOmmnni-
Gated by the absence OF half the plunks on
\ the plANkEd side of the road, and the ruts
and holes cut into the clay side during
weeks rain by :he transportation mRchiu-
cry Ot Nu army Of u hWuAveA thousand
men. On such highway, and 10 such
manner, did these poor fellows, W no stretch
their hands Out Of these AmbuIauces and
army wagons for tin cupsfull of water,
painfully traVel-sOme with arms of At
the shoulder. some with legs OF above the
knee, some absolutely With an arm and leg
1OAu OA uuuulG0S SuuG Tue ltE OF
the arm or the breast, some with the hOrri-
Bile wounds of the face, even to ihe loss of
the jaw and the destruction of speech-All
presenting in the aggregate every possible
variety of gun shot wound, and all the
victims of Slavery.
There were in Fredericksburg last night
(SaturdayJ COLO ROaudcd sOJdiefs in bos
PitaI. How many, slightly WOunded, we're |
living substantially the lives of strHgglers,
aud nuTsing their own hurts, uot even the
Provost Marshal eau at present tell There
were shipped from Belle Plain TO Wash.
ingtoD up to yesterday g. 1913, I am told
But The six thousand aud ten here-Where
are they2
Where are they mott forming from an
inspection Of the strange effect of shell in
the brick masonry of dwelling in a
neighborIng street, | stepped 10 my walk
upon the litter of q lawyers office. Old
writs in the Virginia Court Of Ohancery,
Writs Of .feri faeiaS, bilIs of costs, every
thing Incidental to the old practice of an
aged common Law aud equity lawyer, COW
cred the brick pavement. turned Gu
Friously TO l0uk into the den whence this
ejectment had been made. Six soldiers
lay in it, each with a leg off above the
knee, each bedded only on a blanket, all
pale, none murnuring, none shrinking
from the destiny IF war. These were vet
! Grams, and As they were cared for, and their
misfOrtuues and courage made them sacred
from curiosity, passed with reverentiaI
bow OF the head, aud looked irto the open
doors of the next building with the gilded
sign Of a merchant over it-an abandoned
and empty stOrE(f) Abandoned but not
empty. Both the long counters were COW
cred With wounded soldiers-nud through
the vide intervening space where women
10 the halycou days Of peace and Slavery,
had turned over silks and found fault with
Iaces, our warriors from the Wilderness
lay thick-and not a murmnr came from
one of them. The next building likewise
was an abandoned store, and its counters
were hospitals for our braves. Aud there
was resignation and an acceptance of the
fate of war IN their faces as they looked up
from their bloody and dirty blankels.-
Where are not these wounded 2 In yards
where pumps are, they get water aud sit
on the earth and moisleD their bandages
and cool their burning. In all the many
wooden tenements vacated by the bonn
bardment and stripped afferward of doors,
windows and Weather.b boarding up to tie
second story, they are TO be seen sitting
and having the appearance Of waiting,
either in weariness or expectation or un-
certainly; making no display OF naked
arms bloodily baudaged, and of bloody
baudsges shown through great holes slit
1 with knives ia their trousers, aud LETT un-
} pinned TO let in cold water aud cool air,
> and Of black-baudnged hands aud feet la.
king on a glossy crust outside the cloth
the measure of the length of neglect. On
every sidewalk men pass you strengthen.
log wounded and baudaged leg Gs they
> go, with pole 90 which they lean theil
whole weight, and as it were propsl them
selves. They sit bandaged on door steps
Bandaged and muddyisnd weary, with on
" canteens of water beside them, they al
on curb.s in ever street. Everywher,
men In Federal blue, and with some mari
of blood and battle up6Bthem, walk slowI!
with canes freshly cut in the woods, anl
innnire for nnrna hnanliaIl And thaaa Il