Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-01-10
sherman's Army.-How the Soldiers
Made a Seal Of Iron.

Colonel George Ward Nichols has ad-
ded a Supplement to his t'StOry of the
Great MaTch''-one of the most success
full war-bOOks published in this cOun-
try. The Supplementary chapters,
grouped under the general heading of
ant sketches, illustrating the character
of Gen. Sherman, and the wit, humor
and good feeling OF the soldiers of his
army. Among the new stories told by
Col. Nichols is one called 3The Seal of
Iron. D" In the Connecticut, valley ever so
many thousands or millions of years
ago, when the land was lower, or the wa
ters of the sea rose higher, there were
broad fiat beaches which at each turn of
the tide were left bare. Over these beds
of mud ran many animals, enormous
birds, of whose existence there remains
in our day no evidence save their huge
tracks imprinted upon the yielding
earth, eternally fixed there by the sue
ceeding tide, which oYerspread them
with glitteriug veil of sand, by and by
60 harden into stone. A silent, immuta-
ble record that, which tells the student
of to-day the history of ages past.
As the traveller journeys through
Great Britain or over the Continent, the
garrulous guide will point him to that
same broken wall or ruined archWuy,
and tell him that, many centuries ago,
the Iegions of Rome had camped there,
and now and then we read Of excava-
tiOns which have brought to light tablets
of bronze or weapons of war which re-
veal to the curious antiQuRrY another
chapter in the history of gone-by races
of men.
The oampaings and marches of the
Northern armies over the Southern
land will be remembered in nursery
story and thrilling legend these many
wears, but here and there a mark was
Ouf1uGf tho IN nrt7ravvr
man "a tale of justice justified, and
printed in blood with letters of fire.
One morning in the month of Februa-
ry, 1865, q detachment of troops from
Sherman's army were at work break
ing railroad. This great host of fight
ers and marchers had left the city of
Savannah behind them, a gift of con-
quest to the nation. With giant
strength, with noble endurance, with
wonderOus patience they had struggled
waist deep through swamps which had
been deemed impossible they had built
thousand Of bridges, they had swum
the treaCherOus streams, always in the
face and fire of desperate foe. They
we're well used to bending and twisting
these strips of iron, destroying these
great arteries of the life of the rebellion.
They had left their mark all the way
from Vicksburg, through Memphis
across the mountains, over the hills
and plains Of Georgia, and now, in the
uplands of South Carolina, they had
reached the great heart of the system,
and the heart of disloyalty as we'll, f,
where the great highways of trade and
treason met and separated to their far
thest bound. 1t was a still, sunshiny
morning, of Sabbath quiet, that OF
which write. Far away to the west
the railroad track ran to a point, and
was lost to the hOrizon's edge. All along
the way was marked 1y light columns
of smoke, which lazily lifted themselves
into the misty air. About these swarm
ed thousands OF men feeding the flame,
or bending the heated iron into strange,
fantastic shapes, as their fancy or Reci-
dent might direct.
In the foreground of this scene there
was enacted one Of those solemn dram