Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1865-08-18
DELAwARE, oHIo, AUGUST 18, 1856.


/ For theDelaware Gazette
LITTER THE gT0RM.
.s1f fortune serve me PH reqdIss mis- Kindness
/ KING HENRY VI
Not seven score days ago more than a
million of armed men stood embattled in
behalf of the existence of this great Re-
public. The dark, thunderous battle
cloud stretched its gloomy folds through
| out the borders Of the land, while be-
meath it mighty hosts grappled with each
other in gigantic life and death strug-
/ gle. The gales that swept the rough bo-
som of the Mother Of States carried with
! them the unceasing din of battle the
soft breezes from the South waited the
feverish, sulphuFous breath of war, and
the clangoF of arms rolled westward In
fierce echoes until lost In savage wilds
far beyond the Father Of Waters. Little
was it realized that in few brief and
glorious days all this violence and blood
shed, this darkness and terror, this gloom
and doubt, would cease, and that from
our lurid horizQa the. bright and glorious
dawn of peace would break in almost
unclouded splendor. Yet even SO it was
to be. In the dim. grey of early morning
heroic band. bearing as their symbol <
the sign of human hope in which martyrs
to truth have always conquered, were
seen gathering softly to their places un-
der froWning battlements, which were
the last dread bulWarks of oppression
and rebellion Suddenly the fierce en-.
gines of slaughter open their dread
voices, and blue lines of men, raising
Freedoms battle-cry, sweep forward to-
ward the parapet crowned with the brist-
ling steel of treason. Amid pitiiess
storm of death those lines surge forward
like an ocean tide, and soon sweep over
the ramparts, driving from his lair in
hopeless rout the angry foe. The fort is
won, the eremy's line is irrecoverably
broken, and his army and his capital are
gone forever The decisive blow has
been struck, and the Republic respires
easily for the first time in four years.
Thus the brightest sun of victory burst
almost full -orbed upon us. It CLEANED
upon our regenerated nation holding
aloft the sword of justice dripping with
the blood of its enemies. and lifting on
high its laureled brow all begrimed with
bloody sweat. But that hand soon ex-
changed the sword for the olive branch,
end that brow soon irradiated with the
smile of peace. The storm of war rolled
away in solemn mutterings and the long
dismal night was suddenly illumined by
almost ked-for dawn. tl
'4And ahl what splendors fire the skyi
What glories greet the mornl -.t
The storm-tost banner streams on high, 10,
Its heavenly hues new bornl
Its red fresh dyed in heroes blood, i 4 81
It's peaceful white more pure,
To float unstained o'er field and food
While earth and seas endure"
And now that the morning has come
the historian S pen will be busy in tracing
the bloody pages of the night. Volume
upon volume will be written, and yet it
will be only as drop compared with
that which will remain unsaid and un-
sung. To the angels 1t must be left to
record the vast unwritten history of the
war. Romance, with her light-Winged
fancy, may endeayor to compass 1t, but
her most fabulous flights must ever droop
far short of the reality, and the truth re-
main infinitely stranger than her fiction.
Poesy, with all her Witching charm, can
never reclaim it from the buried past
Painting, even with her boundless reach
of fancy, can never reproduce 1t. 1t con-
sists of thoughts, feelings and events,
which have. passed away with those who
experienced or enacted them. 1t consists
too of height of sublimity, a depth of
pathos, a volume of thrilling reality,
which can never be painted, sung or de-
scribed.
OF the hundreds of thousands of sol
diers who have participated in the war,
each has had his individual experience,
different from that of all others. Itis a
volume written upon his soul, and which
can never be fully unfolded to other gaze
than his own. Adequately impart. it
to others he never can until he receives
the untrammeled speech of an immortal
and dssembodied spirit, Until then. it
must ever remain vivid and enduring
Consciousness which he can only imper
fectly communicate. -
These personal experiences the his
torian can never reach, nor would he if
he could. He deals with great armies,
great leaders, great campaigns, great bat
ties, great defeats, great triumphs: All
that is not great, or so regarded by the
public, he dismisses; for he writes for
the great future. But they who desire to
know the inner and hidden history of
those great affairs will turn from his
page and seek it in an humble source
Perchance by such the following cor
respondence would not be despised as
leading to a clearer. view of individual
experiences within the lines of two great
hostile armies
HEAD QRs' 1sT BRIGADE,
PROV Division 14TH A. O. !