The Portland daily press., 1868-12-25

with his gallant division perhaps the ferces
and most brilliant charge of the battle, sits il
Congress the distinguished representative o
one OF the foremost districts OF Pennsylvania
Garfield and honest John Beatty sit by his
side from Ohio. General John Coburn rep
resents, in the same Honse, Indiana, who's,
colors he guarded so well when wreck ant
rout were sweeping down even brave men,
Rousseau wears the star of the regular army
Sheridan, gallant Phil, exiled by fathles
President, the people of the whole nation
love, and shout at the very mention of tn
name which sends their blood whirling.
All these and many more have reaped tn
rich honors they so bravely won. To-day
around the hearth fires of the nation, let u
remember and do homage to the home mai
tyrs-the countless thousands who Tough
without hope OF star, or bar, or laurel-th
nameless demi-gods who laid down heroe:
lives, and sleep tonight in moundless graves
legended with that saddest of all the word
OF war-unknown. Their incentive wa
loyal duty, their guerdon death. One votiv
moment amid the festivity and cheer of TIL
season to the memory of those who
Loving their country most,
In her dread Pentecost
Yielded their souls
To the Army of the Cumberland the te,
days from December "a, 1862 to January q
1853, was fairly crowded with suffering an,
exposure.
ON THE ADVANCE.
On the Path the command of Major Gen
eral Rosecrans, forty thousand strong, com
menced its grand movement from in front o
Nashville on to Murfreesboro, the three great
corps each on its own road, and all conyerg-
ing to the beleaguered town. A strong re-
serve followed in the centre, which was shift
Q1 N &c f1a
was threatened. Here commenced in truth
the battle. While the coniederated forces OF
Bragg, Polk, Hardee and Breckenridge were
comfortably housed in warm winter quarters.
built with substantial stone freplaces, among
smiling community, their ancestral sery-
ants at hand-our army under heavy rain
lasting steadily for days, and varied only by
roaring storm, was slowly, through mud
and water, fighting its way down to the hos
tile entertainments. 1t was five days before
enough OF troops to regularly open the en-
gagement could be massed before the town.
and all this time was consumed in the most
exhaustive and fatiguing labors in Bringing
up the immense artillery and supply trains.
At times the wagons and cannon had literal
ly to be lifted out of the marshes and almost
carried by the hands of the soldiers. Night
marches were the standing order, at least for
the reserves, and column frequently spent
ten hours of darkness in making half as
many miles. Oh! how we longed through
those weary and hopeless nights for the hot
test fighting, tho deadiiest charge, to put an
end to this prostrating and wretched slavery.
At last it came.
DEFEATED.
After heavy preliminary skirmishing on
Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday evenings
sun-the last OF the year-went down on
us badly defeated and slaughtered ar
my. Driven four miles back, our right wing
disastrously turned, our artillery despoiled,
our unnumbered dead and four Thousand
living in the hands of the enemy-most
armies would have thought themselves beat
en-, but for us it was only terrible misfortune
TO be at once and on that spot retrieved.
Our field was to be lost only with ourselves
l think every private, every boy felt
that. There, On that dismal night-that
frosty, bleak December night-without blan-
kets, without coffee or meat, without soil
tafy fire for we dared not make them
among thousands of their comrades dead, or
what was worse, dying-our men threw them
serves, without murmur OF whine, on the
bare frozen ground, and slept, waiting for the
coming OF the morning-and that morning
uncheered by single ray of hope. felt ap
palled there at the bravery of mani did
homage at that awful altar to the unnamed
and countless heroes. Next morning most
probably meant death, but not man Wept OF
ffnched. 1t was fighting pure and simple
robbed OF all its adventitious glory; there was
nothing to excite, nothing to stimulate. save
desperation. The laurels of Chaplin Hills
and Shiloh wore paling. 1t was battle, but
the battle of the vanquished with their flush
ed and confident victors.
Under the gloomy pines-cold, numbed and
a nhil
equal tall corpse and sleeper-with not star
to break the dull, heavy clouds that kindly
wrapped the scene in darkness-with no re-
enforcement or human aid to hope for, save
their own uncOnquerable hearts and strong
arms, the worn survivors of the shattered
army OF the Cumberland lay down, ready for
such
A NEW YEAR
as God might send them.
On Thursday, in the cold grey dawn of
Forming, with compressed lips and braced
nerves, the line was silently taken up. / can
not tell here the history of the long hours OF
those battle crowded days. Engagements
which in the days of Revolutionary story would
have made their leaders famous, and been
blazoned through time in school-books and
minstrelsy, were here merely affairs of Colo
mel So-and-so. Many bloody onset was on
ly reconnaissance. Suffice it, on that day
we held our ground and gained a few rods.
On Friday we steadily pushed our line over
the red mire of the clotted corn and cotton
fields; and on Saturday, in black darkness
and under driving tempest, we sto1med the
last entertainments and swept the fuctuatine
field.
HOW IT WAS DONE.
~ q the reading world the taking of Muir
feesboro, the Western week of battles, doubt
o. q hPi liant
ment. The conventional idea is. doubtless
largely composed of blue and gold uniforms
bucephalic charges, maddening music, sashes.
banners, plumes, and a general explosion of
military theatricals. In reality it was a con-
test OF suffering, a trial of endurance. We
tagged out the Southern blood. Coming to
the held worn out and Frustrated. it was an
unequal strife in condition as well as num-
bers, but the sturdy Northern woman had
made up their minds TO stay there. and did
VII at last the impetuous chivalry, weary of
s.g themselves on a human wall, could
s'a M,o 1t no longer, and fed.
- nu space between the town and our lines
was won inch by inch, crawling now. and now
charging through the sheet IF aom,e anu MN ,om
brave man fell merely i'm gaining fan au ~
rows. All the area of strife Voc oo /" ~" III
sharpshooters, and in the din of cone;at u, ~
rifles were unseen and noiseless r,nloo, 'lioII
of death. A convulsive plunge and . straseI
ed corpse with little rod spot In the fonn
head told the tale-somebody had fallen o.
unconscious as his neighbors of the direction
OF the fatal ball. All the fighting ground
Tor the most part ploughed fields0Was ankle
keep In mud, or worse. Charging was no
more an impetuous dash, but Just steady
Alaren lneo the jaws of death. On this sir.
eIy, swimming ground we had to eat and
sieep. IN the centre the approaches were
covered by trenches dug secretly. and occn'
pied by night. These, of course, under the
ram became knee deen ii few hours with
sa-a -::e ;c.irty water, but in them night and
day lay our indomitable troops, RELIEVING
each other, regiment by regiment in the
night. Too low to stand up in, too wet to
sit down in, the wretched occupants had tn
remain bent and strained, or to kneel over
Thighs in water. A single peep over the en-
bankment was signal for dozen bullets.
10 complete the scene, the rear was cut
on, and provisions gave out. Corn on tbe
ss ssn one ear to four men per day-was
ino gu 70 the troops, and the splendid fight
= y, rlday was made on that novel DIET
! saw horses, not one hour dead. neaflS
G MS W a skeleton-all gone to steaks
naIu Iiacnsrs, mess pork, and clean water
were the ueAcacies of the season.
frlVatlon OF every kind and deoraa NO. +ho
feature OF the struggle and the lever Of ,,;o. .,e
Dirty, mud-colored, hungry. sbiver;no oi. ,.
did the work, and passed thronob fiI.t ~
glory. What read like an intoxieatino en-, "
cess was hard earned and lahor;o,., oeS