Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-11-18


assumed the most touching forms. Ora,
TROOPERS would hang about the necks q
the animals and kiss them with the nao,
heaTt-rending sobs, and those told osf fel
the butchers werk would raise the pisto
and lower 1t again half a dozen times be
fore they could summon resolution FL
the fatal shot.
| To supply the want of annette fo,
their proper rations, they had recourse To
the most curious devices. Some of Their,
nad saved portion of their earlier meal
or oran rations as long as it could be KEEP
ana with this, under the tutorship of az
inventive genius in the ranks, they manu-,
Iactured ''sheet pudding" a slice Of
which delicacy sold at a fabulous price,
Inc price of ''sheet pudding" if eaten in
Deleagured town, is about six francs
the pound; but on account of it's pres,
rarity, no single person is to be permitted
to purchase either for love or money more
than about two ounces and half. A
keener trial awaited the wretched out
posts when they were on duty for use
rather than for show. In their front
squafted the enemy's scouts round their
nres, where some, for certain, savory
mess was stewing for the coming meal.
And when, in due time, the mess was
ready, lis choicest morsels were held out
toward the lean line of French with a
knocking invitation to come and taste the
German meal. : y
soURvY AND TYPKUs.
Extremes meet in the matter of scurvy
as IN other things. Too much salt will
produce the disease, and too little will
have the samo effect. Needless to repeat
to which cause the scurvy among the
French was due. Its virulence-for that
there was scurvy can vouch for, though
this has been denied-was aggravated by
the excessive dryness of the farinace-
GUS food as long as that lasted, by over
crowding, and chiefly by the want of SIM
pie remedies, and of proper medical at
tendance. The tents became uninhabita-
bic. Healthy men who took to that shell
ter at the beginning of the week Quilted
it at the end, like lepers, all patched with
hideoTs and offensive sores. They car
ried contagion with them through the
whole camp. They infected the enemy
with it when they met them
hand to hand in the sorties and es-
pecially at Worppy ard Landonchamps.
Such of them as were too loaths1me for all
contact with their kind were carried
to the great scurvy camp under the walls
OF the cathedral where, for the most
part, they crawled about in the infected
ring until they died. Some of these must
have been the interesting patients that
one correspondent, good man, saw
through his telescope from the observa-
tory in the Prussian lines; and at that
distance, as they were moved to and fro
in their filters or lay stretched out where
they had fallen from exhaustion in sheer
inability to rise, they no doubt had the
interesting invalid" looks peculiar to the
show cases in charitable convalescent
homes. But in truth they were the un-
happiest patches of human beings ever
collected together il the always mournful
companionship of sickness on this earth.
They were dying, not the soldiers death,
but the death of the rotten sheep, and
their LIES sacrifice, unconsecrated as it
was by. victory, brought no honor to
themselves and no advantage to their
OOuubll.
A worse sight was the camp on Sauley
island, where the typhus cases went. Men
struck down by scurvy die calmly under
the process of swift bodily decay. Those
afflicted with typhus have the paroxysms
and the occasional deliriums of fever.
Sauley island, if Dante could have seen
it, would have suggested new circle or
torment for the inferno. The sentries
there were posted for use and not for
show, tor ever and anon some poor mad
dened creature would break loose from
nurses and doctors and make for the river
like hunted deer. Hideous cries of |
pain cSme day and night in fitful and in |
termittent chorus, and as they were borne
on the wind to the camp of the beseigere,
were duly reported by telegraph to Corny |
aud to the world as shouting in Metz. - |
The reports were right; it was shouting
with Vengeance, and they were right in |
calling il a demonstration too; but it |
was demonstration against the tyranny |
and the cruelty of the demon of pain, |
not in favor of the regency and the i'm |
Rediate surrender, as the ingenIus be-
5eigers were someties inclinedto suppose.
Once maddened fugitive succeeded in
-eaching the river, the sentry not having i
he heart to bring him down with his /
'iece, and swimming it, he ran wet and
naked for a good two miles to Bon 81.
Martin, where the MaTshaps men were
irving barrack-room ball. Dashing into
he midst of the party, which broke up
N all sides to make way for him, this
herald of death never once paused till he
TODD in front of the orchestra, and |
here, in wild and devilish travestie of |
he pas seul Ia mode de Paris, he fin
shed his days run and his life's course |
Ogether, and was carried out to rest for |
hat night, and forever, in ditch in the |
ields.
The camps amusement was spoiled |
or that night, but it continued the next, |
IS it had gone On before, with all the |
igor the circumstances would allow.
the dancers, before the mailman rushed |
n to disturb them, were very skilfully az
anged. Those who were in good health |
lept their own corner of the room. The /
curry stricken, by special regulation,
ormed a set by themselves. Remember
hey were all men, and remember, too,
hat, as faithful narrator, it is out of
ny power in the present case to present |
'ou with anything but a picture of the |
lorrors of war. The whole story of the
iege of Metz is one of horrors. There |
5 nothing bright, or joyous, or hopeful
bout il. Scurvy, as lave said, was
Omitted to the ball under proper regula-
ions. Typhus, as a measure of general |
afety, was not permitted to attend at all
Hence the great improperly and scandal
# the intrusion of the mailman afore-
aid.
THE PERSONNEL OF THE ARMY.
And now a word as to the personnel of
be army. There were five men in Metz
n whose deliberations practically hung
be fate of the fortress, and the fate of
rance. Their names were Bazaina,
the army in chief Coffi-
iere, commanding the fortress and cts
el; Canrobert and Lebeuf, with subor-
mate commands; Changarnier, too old
0 command, and almost too old to ad-
Use, yet admitted TO the counsel out of
aspect for his age and his past services
D France of these men, the chief by
Drce OF character, as by position, was
Iazaine. He controlled the rest as men
4 all ages have been controIed-by the
of his viii, the calm, aud,
l may use the word, deliberate i'm
of his temper, and, above all,
= the mystery of his manner, and his
eticence of speech. To the troops
e was a mere abstraction. /
IN assured on all sides that he
eldom appeared among them, and that
ven on the days of the great sortits they
aught no glimpse of him, and had moth
lg but few too temperate words in his
to hearten them to their work.
n what have now TO say of him admit
lat | am making myself merely the
louthpiece of the disaffected, for l have
5 yet no materials for forming a judg-
tent for myself. His capital error seems