The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-10
CHAPTER XIX.
Faint the din of battle bray'd
Distant down the heavy wind
War and terror fed before.
Wounds and death were left behind.

Wounds and death were left behind.
.lIf, lMickle.
1t was before daybreak on the
10th of August, 1861, period long me-
morable for the events which marked
it, that the Union and Confederate
armies met among the hills and hollows of
Wilson's Greek. The morning was misty and
heavy fog hung low upon the valleys. The
waning stars, struggling with the dawning
light, showed wild, rugged hills, clothed in a
forest, dense and thick with under brush, in
terspersed with deep ravines and fearful
gorges, and wearying the eye with its gloomy
loneliness.
Through this seemingly impenetrable for
est wound a narrow, circuitous road.
To the left of this sandy track, in the will
derness of timber, broken hills and ridges,
stretch far away, peak on peak of undulating
rolling country. On the right a meandering
creek, bottom lands filed with gullies, their
perpendicular sides rough with rocks and
glowing swart and black from the slowly lift
ing fog.
And in these ridges and hills, along these
gullies and dark rayines. lies the Southern
army.
Before them appears the foe far as the
eye can see, the wilderness is one dense mass
of moving men-cannon and steel glowing
redly in the light of the rising sun, as the
magnificent panorama spreads its details be-
fore the eye of the spectator. ,f
From the depths of this dark forest those
splendid objects meet the eye; and far down
the ravines, over the ridges and hills, along
the gullies and ringing the banks of the
creek, rank on rank, column on column, regi-
ment on regiment that grand array seems
to grow larger and more magnificent, as it
flashes into the light of the rising sun.
In the ranks of the Southern army, above
yonder defle, frowns battery of Napoleon
guns. The crests of the ridges on the left
are occupied by BartrSle's Rangers and three
regiments of infantry. There you see the
First and Second Arkansas and the Fourth
Missouri. Lower down the valley stretches
in line of battle the Texas. and Missouri
troops, the center of the line being defended
by three eighteen Founders. On the right,
the Tenth and Eleventh Missouri, supported
by McCullochs Rangers and McDonald's bat
| terry.
The reserves lie on the hills in the rear,
composed Of the Mississippi riaemen and
three regiments Of Missouri troops.
Under the shadow of the immense pail OF
fog and smoke that hung along the hills and
over the ridges and ravines Lyon hurled the
terror of his forces on the southern center
and bathed the valleys in mantle of fire.
On the left the federals appeared in over.
whelming numbers-on hill and valley Their
bayonets cleaned in a living wall of steel,
pouring leaden hail from every ridge and
slope into the faces of the Arkansas troops
! The carnage was terrible. But tine Southern
ers were not idle. The battery o.
Napoleon guns, threatened by the heavy
| columns advancing in its front, did
its work upon their ranks and
opened wide lanes in their array. The fourth
Missouri, under Col. Martin, performed deeds
that would have reflected honor upon the Old
Guard, and aiding the battery, they face that
sea of fame and steel, swaying to and
fro with the rush of the battle, and then clos
ing up their bleeding ranks, stand firm as
rocks in that whirlpool of death.
AT this moment Lyon has pushed heavy
force against the right flank and girdled oul
rear with dense mass of infantry The mo
ment is critical-the danger imminent. But
the Eleventh Missouri wheels into line, and
the Third Arkansas hurries TO their aid, and
before their deadly rifles the Union troops fal
| by hundreds. And now McDonald's batter,
confronts the formidable cost, and pours
shower of grape and canister into their closely
moving ranks.
! On the center the combat is terrible. Can
non answers cannon, and at musket range tn,
contending forces pour into each other al
incessant hail Of whining balls. Here NEE
front to front the border men from Kansas
and Missouri, there Blunt shakes his sword il
the face Of Cockerill, and is answered back b,
a leaden tempest by the men from johnson
and Jackson. 49,. s., .rs.a ssss-- 81
4 The First Kansas regiment, led by Mont
gomery, rushed at the left; but as the Napo
Icons answer the charge by wild flashes o
flame, which open wide rents in the disor
dered regiment, the rangers, with Bartrelle il