The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1865-06-27
The Battlefield Of Chlckamauga.

"A correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial has just visited the battle
field of Chickamauga, and gives, in a
well-written letuer, his impressions of
its appearance. He left Chattanooga
on the morning of the 9th uln., and
entered the field by the famed Rossville
Gap. He says:
! THE FIELD OF THE FIRST DAYS BATTLE.
AS soon as we entered the gap, our
eyes met unmistakable signs Of the
skirmishing which took place through
the narrow defle as the rebel fell back
slowly toward the final line of battle
A squad of tired rebel soldiers, on the
way to their homes, sat by the road
side as we passed, eyeing us with glum
stohdity, evidently debating the risks
Of an encounter with the well-filled
holsters that hung on our saddles.-
We came upon the scene Of the first
days battle-September l9th--on the
left of the Lafayette road. Here it had
been falsely represented that a rebel
brigade was yet this side of Chicka-
mauga creek, without support, and
that rapid movement might succeed
in capturing them. A division was
quickly hurried into the woods and ran
against, instead of demoralized~
brigade, they met Longstreet's Corps,
in good fighting condition, and the CON
fiict soon became fearful. 1t was on
open ground, neither party having time
to do anything more than throw up, in
few places, rails or logs to the height
of two or three feet. Our loss was
very heavy, General Brannon's divi-
sion alone losing, in few hours, over
$500 men. Our lines were forced
back to the road and badly shattered.
THE EVIDENCES OF CONTENTION AND
DEATH.
The ground was not lacking in evil
dences of the bloody work which had
been enacted upon it. Although Ma
ture had, for two years, been undis-
tmbed in her kindly efforts to restore
and heal, yet the whole surface was
strewn with ghastly proofs of the
mighty wrecks which had been made
there. No army had before passed
through there; the farms were quite
and prospering the cattle were in the
fields, and rs the destroying columns
swayed madly to and fro, crushing the
fences before them, many of them met
death, and in all directions are scatter
ed heaps of bones that show where
they fell. The ground is rolling, and
about equally divided between field
and forest, and through. these lines
were formed, with regard, mainly, to
the fitness of the position, and little to
its clearness, or otherwise. AS we
rode over the field, it was plainly evil
dent where the rebel dead had been
buried, and where our own, the few of
them that were granted that poor boon.
The rebel soldiers had been placed in
in graves, however shallow, and de-
Gently covered with stones, and the
spot marked with a neat head board,
labelled, and the whole often surround
ed by square pen of rails. Our own
boys had the hard fate of being left on
the field, and when the rebels vouch-
safed to bury them, they were collected
in rows, or in groups of two or three,
upon the ground, and few spadefuls
Of earth thrown over them. do not
suppose that one-half of our dead were
buried even thus slightly, and before
spring the rain had exposed the ex-
tremities of these. AT one end of one
of these little mounds lay pair of
skulls bleaching in the sun, and at tho
other, two pair of shoes full of bones.
Better that thes should have lain in the
open air, wrapped in their blood-stain-
ed blankets, than to have been sub
iected to this mockery. In one of
these skulls the wasps had built their
nest, and fitting to and fro with busy
wing they were hiving their little stores
and would defend them with boldpess
against any who intruded upon their
strange dwelling place.
A SOLITARY LITTLE HEAP OF BONES.
In another place, at the foot Of o
tree, lay little heap of bones where
some soldier had perished and remain
ed unburied. Here, mortally stricken
he had, perhaps, painfully dragged
himself n few PAGES from the place
where he fell, and leaned heavily
against the friendly trunk of the great
tree, while the route of battle ragged
fiercely around him and his hard press
ed comrades were driven back, step by
step, until at last the " breathless
darkness" gathered thick abont him,
and he bowed his head in "stern
agony" and the soul escaped from its
prison-house. He shall waken no more
from his dreaming:
" The breezy call of incense breathing morn,
The swallow twittering from its straw built shed
The cocks shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse him from his lowly bed"
THE SECOND DAYS FIELD.
After surveying this part Of the field
we rode away towards Crawiish
Springs, near the second days fighting
with Q view of discussing; by the aid
of its cool waters, the collation. WHICH
we had brought. On the way dis
mounted to pick up battered bullet
lying by. the wayside. Crawiish
Springs should be visited by all who
90 to the battlefield of Chickamauga.
The water flows out in broad, noise
less sheet from the foot of hill about
fifty feet in elevation, and is said to be
always clear and of the same porpor-
tions in whatever weather. Here
during part Of the time on the mem
orablc 10th and goth of September,
our soldiers sought in vain to slack
their raging thirst; for, though neither
party were in possession of the spring,
the rebels knowing the locality, shelled