Connecticut western news., 1880-05-05
LEFT ON THE FIELD.

\ --l6I6 to W0Ar away uOuiS OA unyhSAO amidst groans and prayers and curses to wear away night which seemed years long, while men shrieked in agony and died-while wounded horses sighed and groaned and dragged themselves along while ghouls prowled over the blood-red grass and wet their fingers in warm blood as they searched the bodies of dead and wounded for plumber ? | ssForward !" came the order.
 I I looked up and down the line as we left the cover of the woods, and the regi- iment was dressed as if on parade. We were the battlefront of brigade, and were going to charge battery half 0 miles away. No skirmishers out-no firing. The battery was belching away, under cloud of blue smoke, and the ground was open and clear.
 Tramp tramp! tramp! No tagging no forging ahead. Common time march march march It was 0 snail's pace, but we were to increase it. The left of the line was swinging ahead a little as the impatient men increased their steps, when suddenly the enemy | discovered our maneuvre. There was 0 lull in the firing for fifteen seconds as the battery changed front, and then a | shell tore through our center and bat tered six or eight men into bloody pulp.
 "Double-quick-ch !" and away we went, each man shutting his teeth hard as he entered the smoke-cloud, from under which the red tongues of death leaped forward to scorch and wither dozens and scores and hundreds. A grim veteran at my left raised a l cheer. It was yet on his lips when @ grape-shot tore hole through his breast and sent him into dry ditch, dead be- ! fore he struck the grass Two boy brothers on my right halted for an in stant as the grape and canister shrieked l around them. I looked back and they were gone-dead under the feet of the l second line.
 How far it was How long it took us | to pass over that quarter of a mile Now we see shadows around the guns-now l the powder-dame burns our faces-now we are cheering and shooting and using the bayonet. The guns are ours Men fall to the ground as they step into pools of blood. Every gun has its blood-stain every wheel is covered with crimson spots. Men died before the guns around them-behind them. We cheer hip hip hu-!
 Where am I? The afternoon sky Is overhead-the roar of battle is in my ears-I am lying on my back on the ! ground. What does it mean? How came this Heavens What burning, blis- tering, gnawing sensation in my left leg above the knee! I am wounded, and I am lying where I first went down. The guns were here, but they are gone now part of them captured-part of them dragged away by hand. The tide of battle has shifted, and over this meadow the dogs of war are tearing at each | others throats.
 Is there any one else here? lift my head. Any one else! Great God ! but | the field is covered with dead and wound ed-with men writhing and grooming with fragments of bodies-with pale faced dead-with blood-stained dying I can touch the dead on either side, and close behind me a piteous voice calls out:
 "Comrade, for the love of Heaven give me drink p
 That pain again. Is the leg being roasted over a slow fire? Scream and shriek and clutch the grass and keep company with thousands of others who are being tortured to insensibility by pain or driven to distraction by the still continued carnage.
 An! It is night. The falling dew has brought more than one poor soldier back to life and renewed suffering. The bat teries are silent. The muskets are rest ing after their deadly work. There is silence no! From woods and meadow and knoll and valley, from almost every yard of ground on that long battlefront, rise groans and cries and prayers and pleadings. A general brides himself on strategic movement-a colonel will be promoted for bravery-a major is flat tered by the cheers of the iving-a cap tain is proud that his men stood like @ stone wall, and the result is five thou. sand dead and wounded and mangled men-fathers, brothers and sons.
 This is glory. Scream and shriek, but some one has won fame. Pray and plead and rave and curse, but the telegraph is flashing the news of glorious victory over the country. The enemy has not retired as yet, but is getting ready to fal back when the night grows older.
 Hark! Is some one moving? Yes, it is step. Is it some wounded man hob- bling away under cover of darkness Nearer some one looks into my face. It is the ghoul of the battle. field-the hyena who drags his talons through blood and gaping wounds tc rob dying mems pockets
 "Go away-I am not deadp' I shriek in his face as he bends closer, and he leaps aside to growl and curse and search the body of one whose pale, up-turned face is just catching the silver rays of the new moon. Linear more steps. Chou meets ghoul and holds whispered con. versation, and they separate with hands full of plunder. Now comes heavier step. A troopers horse is dragging him. self across the field, shattered leg making him utter almost human groans. He is more merciful than the ghouls, He weaves and turns to avoid the bodies in his path-he even halts and puts his nose against the faces of the dead, as i