The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-12
MILES OF CORPsEs.


stance, four or five Thousand dead men in sight.
Here, there, everywhere, the poor fellows had been
tumbled over. We came upon Frenchman whose
head had been Knocked off Dy cannon shot. There
remained OF 1t two scraps Of skin, each as large
your hand and on one was his moustache and the
end of his nose and on the other patch of the hair
of his head Another had been struck in the centre
OF his body and almost cut in two The shoulders
and head were left the hairy knapsack and red cap
st clingng to them, and below the bloody mass
bis coarse shoes and white CATERS visible:
his face was in the dust Another French soldier
DIsEMBowEIEp
by a fragment of shell, and the fatal missile had
torn open his pantaoons pocket showing q large
piece of hard bread and bit OF meat A tall Prus-
Sian dead was at full length on his back his helmet
half hiding his swollen facethe eagle that adorned
it with the legend, "For King and Fatherland" and
the buckle of his ht showing in conspicuous letters
"God with u.s." On the north side OF the road was
slender little French soldier lying his face, his
gun in his hands. He had been Killed as he was
making ready to fire, and had crouched in the col
lapse Of death like pitiful little animal. trian
gular rent in the band of his red cap told that he
had been shot through the head.
SHOT THROUGH THE HEAD
AT his side was alaTger man, through whose naked
head ghastly furrow had been plowed, and from it
in his stif hands. In the same neighborhood was
French colonel, not dsnpured at all by his death
but had been struck in the thigh and died from the
loss Of blood. He had, it seemed, attempted to do
something to staunch the flow of blood, and finding
it vain had composed himself for DEATH
A NEAT CORPSE.
He was as neat corpse as ever you saw. His
spurs We're still on his heels his KEPT on his head,
his hands by his side. His clothes had been opened
about his breast by some one in search Of vauables,
suppose, and there were articles scattered about
showing that he had been careful in camp to be neat
Among them were q tooth-oru and box OF tooth
powder. The dust from the Paris road had powdered
him. His features were not swollen or distorted,
but clear and coloTess, and his friends would have
recognized him as quickly as in life.
BLACK AND SWOLLEN.
How it happened that in the same groups Of dead
some were hdeOusly affected by the sun, black and
monstrous, with details of horror in their appear
ance that | must not menGion, while others were
pale and waxen every facial outline delicately pre-
| served, do not understand.
THE DEAD HORSES.
Some of the most terrible of the pictures OF death
| were among the fallen horses There were express
sons of unutterabe fear and suffering in their dead
faces The wild eyes, the expanded nostrils, the
some of the faces of these noble animals every hair
seemed to tell tale Of terror The attitudes Of the
horses in death were as various and fascinating in
their interest those of the men, Oh for an artist
to have made study Of them Here is grand bay
shoulder crushed and a hole in his flank half as
large as the head of -four BARREL Stricken down
| with his legs under him and his chin in the dirt
| there was in his
STARING EYES AND STARTLING GRIN
the suggestion of horrible Shrek. Here was
another, shot through the head and prone on his
with his feet and the bloody froth, blown from his
nosris, spoke of the desperate agony of his dying
skin and handsome limbs and graceful head, tipped
with dainty airs any horse fancier would have de-
legs, if they were human arms, against her body,
| which had been shot through. Many were on their
that elancing over the field, horses legs could be
| seen sticking up on all sides, making display that
| would have been grotesque II 1t mad not been
| hideOus.
| GROUP FOR A PHOTOGRAPHER.
In the Gravelotte letter referred to the seven
horses and forty men dead in group; There was
| Of Europe had half the enterprise they have in
! however trouble
| That slaughtered heap contained soldiers of both
armies, and not rag should have been changed or
dreadful picturesqueness, complete. The open cas-
son, the horses at the wheels,
DEATH-sMITTEN BY THE SAME sTRoKF,
| the rod breeches Of France and the blue coats OF
Prussia piled together, caps and helmets, KNAPP
| sacks, swords and bayonets, muskets and sabres,
the hammers for cleaning cannon, one of them
| IS each other, the ground ptted with shells, a
dozen marks of them within within square rod black
they had bounced deep abrasions where they struck
and lay unexploded. ! counted thirteen of these
| in cluster, and so small was the space, you could
have concealed half of them under wagon-cover.
HEAPS OF ooRPsEs.
The little town of Vionville was heaped with
corpses The garden walls were overthrown, the
houses shivered with shots, and one that had been
fired in the battle still burning. Every house had
been saughter-house The Prussians had removed
nearly all their dead, but the French corpses were
so thick that could but think the battle had been
for them at this point, massacre. Extending
dCTOsb Une TOdu lIOIu flOuNulo bOulnWdru was
line on which the French had stood, their faces
toward Paris. How many miles Of corpses there
| were here, In a row revealing the ground on which
the French had made their last stand the second
day, do not know but certainly saw two miles OF
them.
THE AWFUL STRUGGLE.
Traces OF the ferocious energy with which the
French had sought to hurl back the overbearine
legions of Germany were still to be seen in theii
dead faces. few had the look OF meekness and
resignation as death had not come before visions
OF peace, but the many had a fixed ferceness quite
tger-like; it was remarkable that this wild anima
aspect was not noticeable among the fallen Ger
mans. Their attitudes In death seldom expressed
intensity OF action, while the French, in very many
instances, had evidently received their mortal hurts
when every nerve and muscle was strained with the
excitement OF some furious endeavor.
A SHATTERED VILLAGE.
The village of Gravelotte was filled with the usua
evidences OF strife-brokeD walls, shattered roofs
trampled gardens, wounded men, bloody straw
tunity OF contrasting the ratting peals OF heavens
artillery with the fresh remembrance OF the sound
OF the guns of the French and Germans. l must
give the celestial artillery credit for superiority In
sharpness Of reports, but the war guns have pro-
found uglness OF sound, and continuity and per-
sistency much more impressive than occasional
lhunder claps.
THUNDER STORM.
The rain fell heavily for few moments, wet
enough TO make the first inch OF the dust sticky and
TO load down legweary pedestrians with rapid accu-
mutations OF mud which adhered to the feet like
| wet snow. The chapel OF the village was hospital
filed with men too badly wounded for removal. The
| gether on the straw, and the weary surgeons were
still at work with them. Some, whose wounds were
dressed lay tucked in their blankets with an air OF
| comfortableness. The others were suffering in
ole nhndfa "a