Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1868-11-20


tervals could the government issue new
ones to them. Thus the army was in
tatters. Phe old clothes hung on them
like scarecrows. Their gray jackets were
in rags, and did not keep out the chilly
wind sweeping over the frozen fields
Their old blankets were in shreds, and
gave them little warmth when they wrap
ped themselves in them. shivering in the
long cold nights. Their old shoes, patch
ed and yawning. bad served in many a
march and battle-and now allowed the
naked sole to touch the hard and frosty
ground.
Happy the man with new blanket
Proud the possessor of a new roundabout
What millionaire or favorite child of for
tune passes yonder-tbe owner of an un-
patched pair Of shoes? -
Such were the rations and clothing OF
the army of that epoch rancid grease,
musty meal. tattered jackets. and worn
out shoes And these were the fortunate
ones! Whole divisions often went with
out bread even, for two whole days. -
Thousands had no jackets, no blankets
and no shoes. Gaunt forms, in ragged
old shirts and torn pantaloons only. clutch
ed the musket. At night they huddled
together for warmth in the trenches
When they charged, their naked feet left
blood marks on the abatis through which
they went at the enemy. - s..
That is not an exaggeration, reader
The facts are of record.
And that was part only. It was not
only famine and hardship which they un-
derwent, but the incessant combats and
moral tedium of the trenches. All! the
trenches! These words summed up a
whole volume Of suffering. No longer
fighting in open field. no longer iu win
ter-quarters, with the power to range; no
longer freedom, fresh air, healthful move
ment-the trenches! a.
Here cooped up and bampered at every
rGs n eizcJ !uoseer1-=sarvzhz vzzhz al! these lon Q
months of the dark autumn and winter of
1864. They were no longer men. but
machines loading and firing the musket
and the cannon. :Burrowing in their
holes, and subterranean covered ways.
they crouched in the darkness, rose at the
sound of coming battle, manned the breast
works or trained the cannon-day after
day, week after week, month after month
they were in the trenches at their grim
work some fat of Destiny seemed to have
chained them there to battle forever! At
midnight as at noon they were at their
posts. In the darkness. .dusky figures
could be seen swinging the sponge staff
swabbing the cannon, driving home the
charge. In the starlight. the moonlight.
or the gloom lit by the red glare, those
figures, resembling phantoms. were seen
marshalled behind the breastworks to re-
pei the coming assault. Silence had fed
the trenches-the crash of musketry and
the below of artillery had replaced it,
That seemed never to cease. The men
we're rocked to sleep by it. They slept
on in dark trenches. though the mortar
shells rose. described their flaming curves,
and, bursting, rained jagged fragments Of
iron upon them. And to many that was
their last sleep. The iron tore them in
their tattered blankets. They rose gasp
ing, and streaming with blood. Then
they staggered and fell; when you passed
by, you saw something lying on the
ground, covered with the old blanket
1t was one of Lees Miserables," killed
last night by mortars-and gone, to an
swer, III ere!'' before the Master. i:
The trenches !--ah! the trenches -
Were you in them, reader? Thousands
will tell you more of them than can
There, an historic army was guarding the
capital of an historic nation-the great
nation Of Yirgiuia-and how they guard
ed it In hunger, and cold, and naked
ness, they guarded it still, In the bright
days and the dark, they stood at their
post unmoved. In'the black night watch
ed as by day-toward morning. as at
evening-they stood. clutching the mus
ket, peering out into the Ipitchy darkness ;
or lay, doing around the grim cannon,
in the embrasures. Hunger, and cold,
and wounds, and the whispering voice. Of
Despair! had no effect upon them; The
mortal .tedium left them patient J Wheo
you saw the gauut faces contract. and
tears flow. twas because they had receiv-
Jed some letter, saying that their wives and
children we're starving. Many could not
endure that. It made them forget all