Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-10-21
Sv Ar YEE WS.
THE BATTLE OF aBAvELLorrE.

THE BATTLE. OF GRAvELLoTrE.
The carnage on the hill where we
now stood had been in the battle of the
I7tn. (the day befOre,) in the fullest
sense of the term extraordinary. On
both sides of the road were rows of
dead. French and Prussians indiscrim-
inateIv mingled. The center and eli
max Of destruction hereabout was the
position in which Prussian battery
had stood. Here in space not more
than fifteen wards by ten. and IerhapS
dead horses and forty dead men. Four
of the horses were still attached to
calssion, which was open and contain
ed two-thirds of its ammunition. Ev-
identlv the four horses had fallen
at once. The wheel horses had sunk IN
their places, instantly killed, for their
feet were all under them, and their
swollen bodies strained the harness,
which marked them by its restraint
with deep creases. About One-fourth
of this cluster of dead were French,
and the evidences Ofthe situation were
that the French had shot down the
horses. and most of the men about a
Prussian gun and made desperate
charge to take it. Whichever way we
turned our eyes the plain was dotted
with dead horses, and there were
swathes of dead men lying as If they
had been literally moved down.
We could here, better than from our
first position see the troops engaged. .
On the right we could observe the
Iirhtning-lilze play OF fire along the
/ edge of the Prussian column as the
needle-guns came in play. 1t was at
times, for few seconds a steady glare.
The piercing darts of flame, when the
artillery was at work, were also quite
! perceptible and it became apparent
that the Prussians were gaining
ground The earth trembled with the
thunder Of the contest, or seemed to
do so, and yet the noise was not SO oV-
erWhelming as that at the lombard
ment OF fredericksburg, when Burn
sides artillery, to the amount ofnear-
ly two hundred guns, gave the town a
rain of iron one pleasant December
morning; but the musketry fire here
far surpassed that which / heard at
fredericksburg in sustained severity.
At half-past 4 o'clock there was a
j violent explosion of musketry on the
right, and after it continued a few
/ minutes there was a minute in which
/ hardly a shot was fired, and then an
other amazing roar. Now, there was
/ a new fire in the village, and another
to the left, and still another to the
right. The whiffs ofsmoke from burst
/ ing bombs above the line grew more
] frequent, both on the right and left
| spottiHg the dull background first
with sparks of fire and then globes OF
vapor. A little alters O'Clock the head
of the column of reinforcements we
! had noticed looming in the west came
upon the field. The men had march
| ed hard, and were bending under theiI
loads, and going on long, springy
/ slashing step that only soldiers who
| have seen service can acquire, which
they know so we'll. The French seem
ed attentive to the coming of this col
umn and for a time their artillery fire
was exceptionally rapid. The column
/ OF Germans going into action extend
ed from the battiefeld to the west as
far as we could see, and there the gilt
ter of bayonetss at a turn of the road on
a ridge declared they were still coming
i If had not spoken so often of rivers
of steel in vain efforts to tell of the
colossal armies of the Germans in
France, I should say this was one.
THE CLOSE OF a BLOODY DAY.
i On the left, just in the edge of the
I smoke, our new army was mass
ed in blocks eH echet0q fashion; anC
other masses appeared to be cominG
out of the ground, for wide eXpansC
where / had not noticed soldiers wal
covered with them. The smoke wa'
spreading, the dust of the column
from the west was blown across th'
fields. and the sun declining was as
shield of brass-the red, rayless orb o
our Indian summer evenings. Tit
i Prussian masses Went forward int
the hazv field of battle, and the hoarsi
shouting of the legions was heard Al
they advanced. For an hour the arm,
from the west streamed down the roaC