Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-03-08
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA, MARCH 8, 1879.

and every great hattie, it il not unl-
sual to find one or more female
corpses among the slain. In . book
entitled IA Voice from Waterloo,"
written by the late Sergeant Major
Cotton, Of the Seventh Hussars, we
find an illustration of this well known
truth. -. - Ag -.sI
In note to his little work Sergeant
Major Cotton tells us that upon the
field of Waterloo many females were
found among the dead, and that all
Of them wore male attire, and were
known to he as martial in their bear
ing and as courageous as the ordinary
rank and file. lie adds a story that
just at the moment when Shaw, the:
famous Life Ctuardsman, fell mortally
wounded, "after having, it is said,
killed nine of his steel-clad OpPp-
nents," French officer, whose horse
had been shot under hi1ns seized the
regimental colors of the sd foot,
which was carried by Lieut.. Belcher.
A struggle ensued, and The French
man endeavored to draw his sword,
when he was wounded in the breast
by the thrust Of halbert, and imme-
diately was shot dead by a soldier
named Lacey. =
1t was in vain that Major ToOle ex-
claimed, when it was too late, ''Save
| that brave fellow - and after the bat
tic the generous Major and Colonel
n ,nh
Hussar officer, whom Lacey had shot
was an exceedingly handsome young
lady. There is hardly a battle in the
great Napoleonic wars concerning
which similar experiences, which oc-
Cured at Austerlitz and BorrodinO,
will perhaps recur to readers of Sc
gur's memoirs. But when they who
have looked upon battlefield on the
eve or morrow which follows the des-
perate struggle will he the first to ac-
knowledge that scene to paint which
even the imagination of Victor Hugo
is inadequate, does not require the
presence of women to augment its
horrors.
Even in the calm interludes of wal
which divides battle from battle, there
is much that justifies the Roman poet
in speaking of wars, matribWs detes-
tata. In the "Adventures of Ferdi-
nand Count Fathom," the ablest o.
our descriptive novelists, Thomas
Smollet, has left such Il picture of tho
scenes in which his herO's mother
mingled as can not be even read by
men without Il blush of shame, anG
they who know war best how little II
is over-colored. We are told by Tho
historian of the Burmese war of 1876
that three young and handsome wo
men of rank, who were supposed tt
be gifted with prcternatural powers
and to be able to turn aside and rel
der harmless the bullets, rode among
the native levies, encouraging thu
} men and Anglo-Intlians will remem
Der how gallantly the Rance of Jhans
bore herself in battle.
But the days of Penthesilca an(
Boadicca have long passed away, ant
| the mature judgment of mankind ha
. dec1eed that neither as warriors, in
, spring prophetesses, or nurses, Ough
women to take part or be near a
hand when the battle flag goes to tn
! front. There will always remain al
, abundance of duties which, in wa
times, the softer sex is admirably dis
, qualified to discharge, and no one ha
! taught us more forcibly than Mis-
Florence Nightingale, what is tn
l sphere of action in which the "minis
tering angelo reigns without Il riv:
? among her male companions.
| FATE.