Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1869-05-28

the very absence of " orders which be-
fore kept them out, this time let them in /;
for the picket did not deem it possible
that he should refuse admittance to Fed
eral soldiers, when negroes walked in un-
molested. Once within the lines shout
of thanksgiving went up, and many
man thanked God then who had
met almost every danger and al
most every hardship, and never
thought of it before. What sight
they must have been !? dirty as coal
beavers, naked to the waist, and bare
footed vermin creeping over their rags
and long hair,-horrid sores and ghastly
scars,-many limping and many with
arms and heads bandaged in dirty rags
and all having the appearance Of walk
ing skeletons rather than living thinking
men. When that motley assembly, as
it dragged its slow length along the rail
road track, came in sight of the stars
and stripes, all began to weep for joy,
and tears flowed long and fast, while the
exclamations ooh the old flag, God
bless the flag" Thank God we see it
wave once more" came from the lips of
thousand starving men.
But woe awaits country when
She sees the tears of bearded men,"
| IN ~ yuapt Into tbo o+raote &c tba citNy
this stream of human misery from the
foul cutters of the rebel slaughter pens.
We are starving oh for the love of
God give us something to eat.' Away
they went along the shaded sidewalks,
under the rosetrees, and by the flower
beds,-phantoms of want and mystery,
until the city was filled with the mendi-
cant crowd of Northern beggars.
But COL Tilman, of a Philadelphia
colored regiment, assuming a responsible
ity which Gen. Vodges, it is said, fled to
St. Augustine to shirk, issued rations to
the sufferers and provided them with
tents.
The camp was pitched in the suburbs
| of Jacksonville, near the banks of the
beautiful st. Johns river where the ripe
blackberries and beautiful wild flowers
now tempt the traveller into an almost
impossible whey thicket, and these few
survivors of hardships to which twenty,
five thousand of their comrades succumb
ed, at last, found comfort and peace.
Among the sufferers who came in on
that memorable day, was
BRAVE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY
from Natick, Mass, but whose name and
regiment, owing to the absence of en- of
fcer, we could not get. He had endured
so much suffering and laid so many
months out in the withering sun, that
when he arrived in Jacksonville all was
dark to him, for he was blind. Who is
there that can realize the suffering tha
the poor boy must have undergone, which
caused him to become, gradually, but a
last totally, blind +? When we think O
the unfortunate little follew as he was de
scribed to us, sick and sore, nothing bu
skin and bones, and those eyes like Mil
toms,
THAT roll in vain
To find one piercing ray and find no dawn
so thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs
Or dim suffusion vailed"
We cannot resist the temptation to ven
our anger and call down a blightin.
curse upon the guilty hands that deliber
ately planned the slow destruction o
these human beings. Yet JEFF Davi
and his advisers, upon whose hands tn
blood of twenty thousand murdered pris
oners still is seen, go unhung, unharmed
. free. God of Justice How can thes
things be
But the little boy, with wonderful
resignation, blamed no one, cursed nc
body When asked if he had not beel
sorry that he went into the army, h
opened wide his sightless eyes and frml
closed his teeth, exclaiming, Never
, no, no, never p Hopeful words he die
tated to his mother in Natick +" He wa
not very sick" He was soon comm
home" He would soon be able to Sc
J again" and mis- =" friends here were yer
kind to him." But alas he never wen
home, and sight revisited not those eve.
He had always expressed an earnest dc
sire to see Mrs. Reeds face, who nurse
him, for she" had been so kind" an
, the last day of his life he called her t
his bedside, and telling her that he fel
better, remarked, want to see your fac
: SO much and l think shall in a da
or two, EUen no1c / think Isee the Eqht.
Soon his thin hand dropped from hers
he turned over in his couch-and died.
An incident, in which
A PATRIOTIC REPLY
: was given to an insult, who also relate
to us. An old soldier from Indian.
5 whose appearance was extremely wretcl
{ ed, attracted the attention of party ,
( Southern ladies, by whom he was passin.