The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-06-06

In loss Of life, in obstinate fighting, in bravsRy
and valor and in the magnificent patriotism
shown by our people in furnishing the men
and supplies needed for it's successful con-
cluson. All my friends no one who has not
witnessed it, who has not actually participated
| in the bloodshed and carnage OF the bloody
battle, can begin to imagine its attendant
horrors, its CHASTITY sights and it's heartrending
scenes Language fails 10 paint them and the
most VIVID imagination conveys but faint
idea of the terrible reality. Let me for a
moment attempt the description, and IN so
doing quote somewhat from recent writer
who was himself a participant in the stirring
scenes which he so eloquently portrays. The
correctness OF the description will be realized
by any who may have taken part in bloody strife.
"Close up comes continually along the column,
and though the hot sun glares, and the air is
filed with choking dust the march is pushed
without relenting. moments halt by any
one for q swallow Of water must be atoned for
by long double quick, seasoned with much
jostling and not few remarks OF curSory
character from the men filling the road, before
the laggard can hope to regain his place. There
are signs Of work ahead, we meet occasional
cavalrymen conducting dusty prisoners by
twos and by threes to the rear and reporting
plenty more OF the same sort further down
the road They are well out OF the scrape and
can afford to be facetious. Now staff officers
and couriers thread their way clrcumspectly
by the side Of the road or with more enterprise
strike swiftly through the fields and woods
and anon we try to persuade ourselves that q
faint jarring growi, felt rather than heard, at
intervals may be merely distant thunder; but
there Is trifle too much Of the staccQto in
those base notes, and now, as we open more
extended view, there Is smoke rising in the
distance. The troops ahead may be in camp
there or somebody may be burning now
ground or, No-Look yondsr. Just over
the distant woods, queer round little white
cloud jumps suddenly out OF the sky-theres
another. And now patteriug sound like rain
falling on tin roof, comes back to us, mingled
now and then with another not to be mistaken,
the prolonged, murmurous vociferatlon. rising
and falling upon the air, now shrill, now hoarse,
which tells that the troops are charging The
ball is open indeed. Forward shll-but there
are eddies and counter currents now IN the
tide OF humanity rolling toward the sound,
which becomes more and more unmstakably
the voice of battle. First of all come the
stragglers, men who wearing the garb of
soldiers, never ight-limping rearward with
distracted gaze, as If they took no heed OF the
jeers which greet them at every step; ambu-
lances next, inside of which we catch OCCASION
ally glimpse OF PROSTATE moaning figure
returning broken and mangled over the ground
which he trod an hour ago, where some of us
are now treading IN his very foot prints, then
more stragglers, then field hospitals and
ordnance wagons beside the road, then stray
glers again, some of Them bloody now and
grim with the stains Of mingled dust and sweat
and powder, and haegard with faintness and
fatigue. Now leveled fences and wheel tracks =
turning into fields mark the frontier OF the
battle ground" but still on and on we press
until, we can scarcely realize how, we are in
the very midst Of the hottest part Of the fight,
our ears are stunned with the continuous roar
OF musketry so incessant, 80 overpowering as
to almost drown the louder voiced, but less
continuous sound of artillery. Men are falling
on every side, riddled by mimic balls, torn into
shreds by bursting shell, scattered limb from
limb by solid shot, moved down IN swaths by
grape and canister, the cheer Of the
union troops mingles with the never to be for
gotten rebel yell, but still on and on we press.
giving little heed to the pandemonum of
sound or the death OF comrades, all fear OF
death or bodily injury, all sense OF WEAKNESS
or fatigue, entirely banished and forgotten by
the fearful, terribly exciting scene, until the
declining sun sinks IN the west as il ashamed
10 look upon the horrible, gsstly, murderous
work OF man. The firing grows less and less
severe, and gradually dies away, we rest upon
Dur arms, and courlers from the commanding
General announce the enemy in full retreat.
Victory is ours but we are too badly broken |
md shattered to follow the foe and reap the
'ull advantage Of success. stacked muskets
Ind dropping battle flags, mingle confusedly
With rows Of trampled corn, hight filmy vapor
hangs breast high above the ground, and the
Iir is odorous with its sulphuric fumes, and
With the aromatic exhalations OF bruised
herbsge." And then the scenes after the battle.
Here and there in the woods trees recently I;
elled where no ak had been piled, and in the
ields burrows not traced by the pillow, acres of
ountry where the soil is trodden like high
yay,' hospitals in which the wounded we're
gathered. the surgeons busy, with their humane
,ut CHASTITY work, the means aud cries OF the
wounded and the manned, the gathering and
he burial OF the thousands Of dead in one
asst trench, there to rest without mark or
to note their last resting place, to
est in unknown graves until the sound Of the
ast trump. Here and there in ont of the
7ay places, dlsfgurei by dust and blood, with
aces BACKED and swollen and distorted out of
IL semblance of the Creators image, PROSTATE
n the underbrush or standing upright and
tark in the mud aud water as they had met
heir doom, are forms in gray or in blue cloth {
ng, which betokened that they had once been {