Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-03-29

] retreat-fOr SUCH II doubtless Was-Went On
And now the plot begins to thicken. On al
sides were seen troops of various nations
| hurrying on in the same direction as our
selves. The road became choked. Once
| in regular jam with some ammunition
wagons, violent thunder-squall came on
and began to speculate ON the possible
effects of fash Of lightning. We had te
wait some little time, and ] lay down in the
| long rye by the roadside. l was violently
heated, and thirsty, and refreshed myself
| by sucking the ears of corn, which were sc
drenched by the heavy rain that each was q
sort of wet sponge.
| The foreigners began to give out, and lie
down by the roadside in constantly increas-
ing numbers. Most conspicuous among
them were some huge Dutchmen, with
/ enormous beards-things not then usually
worn. They made no attempt to conceal
their alarm, and l began TO doubt how the
feeling that our allies were good for nothing
| might affect our men. 1t was satisfactory,
however, to see that they seemed to look
upon it as unmitigated fun. The passage
of any staff officer was eagerly watched, in
the hope Of picking up information. over
heard one say, ia answer to some inquiries
about our retreat: ssOh, we shan't have to
| 90 much further He is going to make a
| stand at place called, believe, Waterloo,
or some such name" -
From the crowded state of the road,
| checks were now become very frequent.
| On some occasion, hearing an odd kind OF
noise close to me, / looked up, and saw a
wagon of wounded men, 1t was utterly I'm
expected, and | only hope l did not show
| how it shocked me. Two figures L see now.
| One had been shot in the mouth the whole
| face had swelled till the features were I'M
| distinguishable. 1t was one cake Of blood,
and where the mouth had been was hole,
from which came sounds that were not
| human. In contrast to him sat a very fine
| looking man in greatcoat, which concealed
| his hurt. His face was deadly pale, and
wore an expression of deadly suffering; but
he maintained absolute silence.
We passed through the town of Braine-le-
| Compile, which looked entirely deserted by
| the inhabitants. 1t was occupied by some
| foreign troops, who, we understood, were to
stay and meet the advance of the French.
| One company got under arms at sort OF
! guard house. in compliment to us, as we
passed. They looked, officers and men, dis
| mal-forlorn without the hope. l could not
help admiring the endurance Of our men.
They had started about nine or ten on the
morning of the 10th; had been marching
| through drenching rain and violent storms
until now, the afternoon Of the 18th, with
very trifing halts and no rations. They
had breakfasted before starting, and had
little or no opportunity of picking up any
food or the way q had only my share of the
hot bread and Curacoa) and here they were,
going on without apparent fatigue, and
without a murmur. Well, all things come
to an end. We turned off the road, upon a
rising ground, which showed other regi-
ments forming line, as we did. The position
was reached, ihe march was over. AS was
looking round, to see what was coming next,
| YVES accosted by an old Peninsu,ar captain
with grim smile: "Well, -, here's the
butchers shop. How do you like it? 20 But
the real butchers shop came; we got the
meat, and some spirits, and fed at last.
contrived to get capital bundle of straw,
and lay down (thatching myself with 1t, for
the thunder showers were constantly ON
slope, from which could see all that was
passing. Before me spread one wide level,
mostly i'll corn, with no Enclosures or woods
to break the view Across it, at the distance
of more than mile, ran long lines of Brit
ish cavalry, formed to cover our retreat.
Beyond, in the distance, / could make out
the French line. The guns could not dis
tinguish, until they opened fire; then the
smoke, settling in little thunder cloud
above each battery, mapped them out. |
could see the lines shifting, wavering, ad-
vancing, retreating, but was too far off to
make out anything more than that skirm-
ish on grand scale was going on-then our
side seemed to gain ground-and then the
souall seemed over. There is o horseman
coming from the fight, at speed, right to-
wards u.s. He pulls up close to party OF
our office throws the reins on his horse S
neck and bursts out a laughing. His horse
is in q lather, but himself in the highest
spirits. This is the duke of 49,, a captain
in our regiment, but serving on the head
quarter staff and he is laughing because
he has Just seen the life guards ride over
the French. (He did not tell us, what we
heard afterwards, that some of our light
cavalry had first failed to do So What is
that astounding rattle on the right? And
what are our fellows elasping their hands
and shouting for, as if it were the best fun
in the world? 1t is the whole baggage
train of the British army in a panic, fleeing
for their lives along the paved road, bound
for Brussels. And it is no joke at all. 1t
is only fright now but all through the night
will be plumber and robbery
and murder-women and children upset in
10 the canal and drowned. The loss of life
was great; the conduct of very many in
lannon's. 1t was a shocking and disgraceful
business; but it was hushed up. Victory,
like charity, covered the multitude OF sins
and in the ocean of our losses, this drop
was of no account. Again we stood to oul
arms. and moved off, l carefully carrying
my precious truss of straw under my arm
The two armies were in motion-in presence
in full view The prattle of skirmishers
began, grew angry, died away. The sun,
just before setting, came forth from his
frowning host of storm-clouds, threw one
wild CLEAN of light over the awful scene
and disappeared care we going to work
now ?" l asked the little fellow by my side
Ia boy in years, in service yeteran).
sNot tonight, think; it's too late"
"What beautiful sight Isn't it?"
could not help saying.
With grave, sad smile of superior expert
ence, he replied: swat till Tomorrow
night; tell me then how beautiful yol
think it,"
We kept changing our ground, and a
every move lost some of my straw. Blum
dering throuc dark and wet, the las
of it went be NE came to our final posi-
ton Very quickly the opposite ridge wa
, lighted up by the fire Of the French arm,
making themselves happy for the night
What a range of them; and how | enyiet
them! We had nothing of the sort. TIL
ftful fire of outposts-every now and thel
like q small battle-burned out. The las
, sounds | heard were the constant rush o
the rain, and the constant wall of some poo