The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1870-10-27
War as ills. !.

War as It Is.
DR.. w. 81. Russell sends the follow
ng account of tho battle of Sedan,
and.the scenes on the field, to the |
Tendon, Times. He writes from
Donchcry, Sept. 3:
Tho ereRtest event OF our time he !
sccnfzsd under tho eyes ofthose wins |
IRw:tAt b&tAe of Sedan. 1 think the |
2titish pablo must have I'D el>unh
cf bG$e Held horrors h6Spitkl |
scena There will be 4 bty: of 1T /
tsrs cribing Kru1 n EAgets,
D0El 4rtis9, wounded ksn. heaps |
of Oh the hidious reNafSe tn
MD ID the other side 6f witch arS3
~ t1lekt emblrxonments Of glory |
and victory. / will not dwell on the
topic, but ask your readers. to be
content with the assurance that no
human eye ever rested on such re-
voting objects as were presented by
the battle fields around Sedan. Let
them fancy masses 0f ,colorsd rags
glued together, MID .Elo6d and brains
and pinned tntF strange shapes BIZ
fragments Of bones. Let them con-
ceive men'e bodies without heads,
legs without bodies. heaps Of human
entrails attached to the red Ind blue
bloth, and overwhelmed corpses IN
uniform, bodies lying abor. id all at
titudes, with skulls shattered, faces
blown of, hips smashed, bones, flesh
and gay clothing all pounded togeth-
fer as if brAysd il mortar, extend
ing for miles, not very thick in some
places, but RECURRING perpetualiy for
weary hours, and then they cannot,
with the most vivid imagination,
como up to the sickening reality Of
that bntchery. No nightmare could
be 20 frightfol. Several times / came
on spots whore there were two hofv
ses lying dead together in harness,
killed by the same. fragment. Several
times I saw four, Eve and six men,
all killed BY the explosion Of one
projectile, and in one place no less
than eight Frenbh soldiers who mtbt
have been struck down by the burst
ing OF shell over q company, for
they lay all around in = circle with
their feet inwards, each. shattered in
the head or chest bysa piece Of shell
and no other dead being within q
hundred yards Of them. a curions
and to me understandable phenome-
non was the blackness of most of the
faces Of the dead. Decomposition
had not set in, for they were. killed
only the day before. Another Cir.
cumstance which struck me was the
expression of agony on many faces.
Death by the bayonet is agonizing,
and those who die by steel open.
eyed and open-mouthed, have an
expression of pain on the features,
with protruding tongue. A musket
ball, which is at once vital, does not
seem to cause much pain, and the
features are composed and quiet,
sometimes with. q sweet smile on the
lips. But the prevailing expression
on this field ef The faces which were
not mutilated was one of terror and
of agony unutterable. There must
have been a hell of torture raging
within that semicircle in which the
earth was torn asunder from all sides
| with . real tempest of iron, kissing
and screeching, and bursting into the
heavy masses at tine hands Of an nm,
seen enemp. / cannot imagine any.
thing so trying TO the bravest man
es to meet death almost ingloriously
in such q scene as that nothing 90
maddening to soldiers ~ to beannilsi.
lated ,cithoMt chance Of vengeance
nothing SO awful to the fugitive as to
SEQ his comrades blown to Fragments
all around him. It is we'll that wives
and mothers and fond sisters were
spared the sight Of their beloved
ones, and it il we'll that in France il
is only mothers and sisters who will
have to deplore the slain. Whether
the Prussians buried their dead early
1.-THE night Of the battle itself ol
not, I cannot tell, but their losses
were almost nothing if they were te
be estimated by the number of bodies
on tho fold. vs.