Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1870-10-06
MILES Or CORPsES.
After the B>ttie-Acres o.
Dead and Dying

|
the poor fellows had been tttmbl,d over.
| We came upon Frenchman whose head
had been Knocked of by cannon shot
There remained of il two scraps of skin,
each rs large as your hand, and on one was
his mustache and the end of bis nose, and
on tLs other patch of the hair of his
head. Another had been struck in the
center of his body and almost cut in two
| The shoulders and head were left, the
hairy knapssck and led cap still clinging
TO ia. IN and below the bloody mass his
coarse shoes and white cutters were
| visible; his face was in the dust
Another French soldier hnd been disem-
boweled by fragment of shell, ard the
fatal missile had torn open his pantaloons
pocket, showing q large piece of hard
breid and bit of meat A tall RUSSIAN.
dead, was at ftll length on his back, his
helmet half hiding his sw5ilen .eeo the
eagle that adorned it, with the legend.
'For King and Fa.herland," and the
buckle of his hilt showed in conspicuous
letters, 'God with u.s." On the north side
of the road Wa; slender little French sol.
dier lying on his face, his gun in his hand
Iis had been killed AZ he was making
roady to fire. and had crouched in tho col
lapse of death ike a pitiful little animal.
\ n
cap told that he had been shot through the
head.
At his side was larger man, through
whose naked head ghastly furrow had
been plonghed, and from it the torn brains
issued. His chGssepot was clntcbed ia his
stiff hands. In the same neiglborhood
| was a French colonel, not disfigured at
all by his death wound. I think he had
not meet his death instanslv. but had
been struck in the thigh and died from loss
of blood. He had, it seemed, attempted
to do something to staupch the flow OF
blood. aud finding il vain, had composed
himself for death.
He WAS as neat corpse as yof ever saw
His spurs We're still on bis heels. his kept
on his head, his hands by his side. His
clothes had been opened about his breas;
| by some one in search of vaiunbles, / SUI
pose and there were articles scattered
about showing that he had been careful in
camp to be neat. Among them were a
toothbrush and n box of tooth powder
The dust from The rsris road bad pow
dered him. His features were not swollen
or distorted, but clear and colorless. aud
his friends would have recognized him
quickly as in life.
How it happened that in the same groups
4
the sun, black and monstrous, with details
of horror in their appearance that / must
not mention, while others we're pale aud
waxen. every facial outline delicately pre-
| served, do not understand.
Some Of The most terrible of the pictures
OF death were among the fallen horses
| There were expressions Of unutterabls fear
and suffering In their dead faces The
Wild eyef'. the expanded nostrils, the open
| lips displaying The inil length of the teeth.
In some OF the faces ol these animals every
hair seemed to tell ale OF terror. The
| attitudes OF the horses 10 death were ss
| various aud fascinating in their interss1 as
those oi tho men. Uu for an artist to have
| made study Of ihern Here is a grand
hay horse shot through by 40 unexpl.deo
shell, his left shoulder crushed aud hole
in ms flank half as large as tho head Of a
honr barrel. Stricken down with his legs
under him aud his chin in the dust, there
was in his strange eyes aud start
ling grin the suggestion of a
horrible shriek. Hero was another, shot
through the head aud prone on his side.
In his struggles be had torn the clover sod
with his feet, and Tile bloody iroth, blown
from his nostrIls, spoke OF the desperate
agony of his dying breath. a beautiful
1
some limbs, and graceful head, tipped with
danny airs, any horse fancier would have
detected the matks ot eeptle blood, had
clasped her legs, ~ if they were human
arms. against her body, which had been
siot through. Many were on their backs,
their legs extended So numerous We're
they that, glancing over The feld, horses
legs could be seen sticking up on all sides,
making display that would have been
grotesque il ii had not been hideous.
i Iu the Gravellotte letter I referred to the
seven horses and forty men dead ia q group.
There was a chance for a photographer
IL the photographers of Europe had half
the enterprise they have in America,
some of them wculd haze been on
the spot, however extreme tho trouble
Of getting there. That slaughtered heap
contained soldiers of both armies and
not rag should have been changed or
shifted for tho purpose of the artist
1t was in its dreadful picturesqueness
complete. The open caisson, tho horse at
the wheels death-smitten by ths same
stroke, the red breeches Of France and the
blue coats of Prussia piled together. caps
and helmets, knapsacks, swords and bayon
cts, muskets and ssbrss, the lammers for
cleaning eannun, Gre Of then broken,
chassepots and needia-guns literally lying
across each other, the ground pitted with
, shells. dozen marks of them within q
square rod. black holes where they had
burst, indentations where they had
bounced, deep abrasions where they had
struck and lay unexploded / counted
thirteen of these i'm siuster, and 30 small
was the space, you could have concealed
half of them under a wagon cover
le of will nod
with corpses The garden walls were over
thrown, the houses shivered with shot,
md one that had been fired in the battle
sill burning. Every house had been q
slaughter house. The Prussians had re-
moved nearly all their dead, but French
cerpses were so thick that one couid bat
think the battle had been for them, at this
point, a massacre. Extending across the
Paris road from Vionville southwark, was
line on which the French had stood, their
faces towards Paris. How many miles OF
corpses there We're here, III a row, revealing
the ground on which the French had
made their last stand on the second day, /
|, do not know, but certainly saw two miles
Of them. f.e.rs
Traces of the ferocious energy with
which the French had sought to hurl bach
. the overbearing legions Of Geri,aany we're
still TO be seen 10 their dead faces. A few
had the look OF meekness and resignation,
as if death had not come before visions OF
peace, but the many had fixed fierceness
quite tiger-like. X was remarkable that
this wild animal aspect was not noticeable
among the fallen Germans Their attitudes
, in death seldom expressed intensity of &C.
ton, while the French, in very many in.
{, stances, had evidently received their NOR
tai hurts when every nerve and muscle was
strained With the excitement OF some ia
rious endeavor.
! The village OF Gravellotte was filed with
) the usual evidence Of strife broken walls
/, shattered roofs, trampled gardens, wound
ed men, bloody straw.
The chapel of the village was hospita
filed with men too badly wounded for re
movaL The mangied French and Prussians
, were huddled together on the straw, ant
, the weary surgeons were still at work viii
them. Some, whose wounds were dressed
Law tuck al i'm tbair hlouEofa ~~sfl = =