The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-08-30

BIZ G. A. TOWNSEND, IN THE CLEVELAND PLAIN
DEALER.

cannot tell you, at length. Of the riding have
done upon this retrospective battle fe d excursion,
in strange, old, jolring stages where, In the middle
of sleep, i was awakened by hearing the driver
call The name Of some historic place, and looking
out, would see poor cross road, With worm
fences. zig Tagging around it. woman hoeing in
field, ard hay wagon bringing up some recruit
IN faded fnery for the stage. There are few but
Confederate dead remaining on the battle fields
now. Union cemeteries stand ct Winchester,
Fredericksburg, Arlington, Richmond. Antietam,
anton, Petersburg, and the question Is nov I'M
der dhcussion as 70 whether the Confederate dead
shall be also buried in the same sepulture. / be-
lieve it would be well to accord this. though at
first consideration II may seem objectionable.
When the dead lie together under the same fisg
protested. the living will abide under il in equal
harmony. II Is the dead that lie between us now
more than any projected policy Of reconstruction.
No man can be wise for the country's peace, but
some fool can set him down with Behold The
dead ~ IL is not the father OF the slain boys of
the Union who say that the slain rebels should rot
where they fell. No man is sure, whatever the
inscription on the gravestone may say, that his
own boys bones really lie there. The body he
bsnns fl, m christian burial may be his own sons
grave the despised dead. Besides, We want no
monuments to the rebels slain in their own terri
tory, else we shall 60 to where our brothers lie and
see no lsures hanging over them, while the rival
places of skulls will be wreathed and lilied, and
the one mourner will hate and the other mock
To prevent the rising Of testimonials perncious
government 10 encourage a common decent in
teiment Of those who spent life together in emulous
thorgh contrary devotion, and, IL upon these
neiehborly graves the generals Of both armies
would ssy together in common dedication:
Requiescdt ia pace, the country would obey ike
the duet of the Lost.
Let me tell you of a scout saw on this excur,
sion. He was formerly in the employ Of the bury
ing corps, and his business was to hunt up the
bodies of Union soldiers. II is difficult to get ia.
formation 10 where these lie in all cases. for the
farmers do not wish their crops difturbed by the
exhuming. and many of them are averse to seeing
Confederate bodies pulled up and then summarily
tossed into the bitches, while the Union relics are
borne tenderly away. So the scout carries letters
10 the Union farmers and asks that they indicate
the graves Of any loyal soldiers. The man saw
was q rough farm boy, who had himself been a
soldier. He had found bodies in hollow trees
skulls OF men known by name mile from the
rest Of the skeleton, dragged streams and swamps,
often directed by the fight of vulture who
we're circling over the ont-cropping corpses. 10
deep wood near Beverly Fork found him spsd.
ing away. apsir Of old shoes and a mody leather
belt LAID by his side, and In the box he brought
drummer boys bones, very slender and short,
with the hip fractured. Poor boy il was pro-
found silence after all the noise he had made.
do you ever find money or jewelry on the
bodies you disinter?n
Never they were too well searched while
they were warm with fe.n
The hair Of the dead is very generally discovered
glossy and luxuriant as when they fell. 1t would
be the dearest mortal part Of friend to recover.
could not help thinking, while | spoke to the
scout of the dresdful associations he uncovered |
with those remains, Of the battles he opened |
again with all these skeletons striding forward, |
flDging up their bony arms to huzzs, dropping |
their hollow eyesockets TO the rifegroove crying
pain with their griDnng jaws. Out of the bivouao
of death he called them with his silent pick, and |
limp and piecemeal they answered who had once |
made the mountains ring With their prompt re-
Spouse. Some of these skulls have been run |
through with the plowshsre. | saw at Cedar |
Mountain boy driving away cows with the |
cartilsges Of what seemed human spine; worse |
than this, / was told, near RappahsnnOck, OF a |
scarecrow set up in wheat fied and rugged out |
with an old coat and pole, that was the real skull
and RIBS of dead man. propped up there to defy
the birds of the air