The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1877-08-15

Not one OF them ke and GIT up
They weie not relieved, either, when
the others came. They seemed to
baye no commandrr-at least nOue
awok-. Had the fatigurs Vf the da,
completely uyerponer-st all u them,
flicers nad prisates alike, They
were nearest the rneny, within call
Of him. They were The advance line
OF the Union army Was it thus
they kent their watch, on which the
safety of the whole army depended,
pent up between the ridge and the
rivery The enemy might come
within ten steps of them without be-
ing seen. The log was veil No
one knew what lay or moved or crept
a little distance of. The regiments
were allowed to lie down. Ia doing
so, the men ma lie q denser rank with
those there before them Still those
others Gid nos waken. u you looked
closely ut the face Of any one of them,
in the mist and dimness, il was pallid.
the eyes closed, the mouth open, the
hair was disheveled; besides. the at
titud. was often painful. There
were blood marks, also. These men
were all dead. Nevertheless, the
ney comers laid down among them
and rested The pail Of night con-
cealed the foe now. The sombre un-
certainty Of fate envelOped the NOR
row. One was saved from the peril
of the charge, but be found himself
again ON Marye's Hill, near the ene-
my, face to face with the dead, sha-
ring their couch, almost 10 their en-
brace, iu the mist and The December
night. Why not :cept them as bed
fellowsy The bullet that laid low
this one, if il had started diverging
by ever so small an angle, would
have found the hearts blood of that
other who gazed upon them. Ii was
cha1ce or Providence, which toner
row might be less kind So they lay
down with the dead, all in line, and
were lulled asleep by the monotony
Of the cries Of the wounded scattered
everywhere.
4 WATCH WITH THE pYING.
AT this time three officers rode out
from the ranks, down the bull, toward
the town. They sought to acquire a
better knowledge of the locality.
They were feeling about in the fog for
the foot of the bill, and the roads After
they had gone a little distance, one
Of them was stationed as guide
marx, while the two others went
further, reconnoitering or exploring.
He who was thus left alone found
himself amid strange aud melancholy
surroundings. Meditation sat upon
his brow, but to fall into complete rev.
cry was impossible. The hour and
he scene would intrude themselves
1pon his thoughts OF what lad befAl-
EN-. The dead would not remain unno-
ticed. The dying cried out into the
darkness, and demanded succor of the
world. Was there nothing in the
universe to save? Tens of thousands
within ear-shot, and no footstep of
'riend or foe drew near during all the
hours Sometimes they drew near
and passed by, which was an aggrs-
Tation of the agoony. The subdued
sound of wheels rolling slowly along
md ever and anon stopping, the
of voice and cry of pain,
old of the ambulance on its mission.
1t went off in another direction. The
cries were borne through the haze to
he officer as be sat solitary, waiting.
Now a single lament, again voices
ntermingled and ,s if in chorus;
rom every direction, in front, behind.
10 right, to left, some neer, some dis
.ant and faint Some doubtless were
faint that were not distant, the de-
parting breath Of one about to ex-
pire. They expressed every degree
aud shade of suffering, of pain, of
agony; sigh, groan, piteous ap-
peal, q shrek, a succession of shrieks.
> call of despair; prayer to God, a
demand for water, for the ambulance,
d death-rattle, a horrid scream, a
voice as of the body when the soul
tore itself away, and abandoned it to
the enemy, to the night, and to dis
The voices were various.
This, the tongue of German; thai
wall in the Celtic brogue Of poor
Irisbmau. The accent of New Eng
and was distinguishable in the thin
cry OF that boy. From a different
quarter came utterances in the dialect
Df far off Western State. The ap-
peals of the Irish were the most pa
Ihetic. They put them into every
form-denunclalion, remonstrance,
pitiful prayer, peremptory demand.
The German was more patient, less
Withdrawing into
himself. One man raised his body
on his left arm, and extending his
right hand upward, cried out to the
heavens and fell back. Most o! them
ay moaning, with the fitful move
neut of unrest aud pain
RoBBING THE DEAD.
Atthis hour Of the night, over at
he Philips House, Burnside, overru-
ing his council of war, had decided,
IN desperation, to haul the Ninth
Corps next day, himself at its head,
against that selEsame eminence
The officer sat on his horse looking
,ut in the spectre making mist and
darkness. Nothing stirred: not the
sound OF gun was beard; dread
silence, which one momentarily ex-
pec;ed to be broken by the rattle of
firearms All at once he looked
down. He saw something white,
not far off, that moved and seemed
to be man. 1t was, in fact, thing
10 human form. In the obscurity
one could not discern what the man
was doing. The officers observed
him attentisely. He stopped and
rose again; then stopped and han
died an object on the ground. lie
moved awry, aud again bent down.
Presently he returned, and began
once more his manipulations of the
former object. The chills crept over
one. The darkness and the gloom
aad the contrasted Stiffness from the