The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1880-09-18
=. e HORROR ' OF WAR.
Detroit Free Press. |


In the eSsS'anent of battle the fall Of
comrade is scarcely needed, and half
Of company might be wiped out and
the other half fight on without the
knowledge of it. 1t is only after the
loud-mouthed canncn and the murderous
musketrya have ceased their work that
the hideous face of war shows itself to
make men shudder and turn away.
Soldiers who have never gone over
battlefield, or been one of burial party,
have missed half of the grimness and
awfulness of war.
After Gettysburg, one of the Union
burial parties buried eighty Federal
soldiers in one trench They were all
from a New York regiment, and all
seemingly fell dead at one volley. They
were almost in line, taking up but little
more room than live men. All of them
were shot above the hips, and not one of
them had lived ten minutes after being
hit. Here lay, then, what was full
company of men, wiped out by one single
volley as they advanced to the charge.
Some had their muskets so tightly
grasped that it took the full strength of
man to wrest them away. Others died
with arms outstretched; and others yet
had their hands clasped over their heads,
and never-to- be-forgotten expression
on their white faces.
At Fair Oaks, the Third Michigan had
its real baptism of fire. The boys had
been held back on other occasions, and
now when given opportunity they went
for the enemy posted in the edge of the
woods on the double-quick, and with
yells and cheers A part of the regiment
had to swing across glade, and in so
doing lost fifty or sixty men in the space
of sixty seconds. One company lost
twenty men who went down together in
one spot, and scarcely moved limb after
falling Details of five men were made
from each company to advance as sharp
shooters, and of these fifty men who
plunged into the woods as skirmish
line only six came out alive, and every
one Of these was wounded from one to
three times
At Cold Harbor a shell exploded in an
Ohio regiment advancing against bat.
terry, and sixteen men were wiped out in
an instant. Of these nine were blown to
fragments and the others horribly mu-
tilated. The battery was firing thirty or
forty shells per minute and it was the
work of single one. One discharge of
grape in this same fight killed fourteen
men in Michigan regiment, and New
York regiment which went in with 703
men in line came out with only $780, On
one acre of ground the burial party found
over 700 dead men. In bit of woods
where the battle lines had clashed more
than 1000 dead were found in space no
wider than square in city and no
more than three times as long.
At the battle Of Savage Station, dur
ing McClellan's change of base, solid
shot fired from Federal field-piece into
the head Of an infantry column marching
by fours, killed twenty-one men and 8
horse before its progress was checked
The first ten men were reduced to bloody
pulp, and the others crushed and bruiset
to death. At this same battle a rebe
shell exploded under Federal gun ant
killed four artillery men, dismounted tn,
gun, wounded two men, and the butt o
1T flew off at tangent, and killed
Second Lieutenant of infantry who wa
eighty rods away.
At Fredericksburg, as the Union in
fantry marched in solid masses up tn
valley beyond the town, the Confederate
opened fire from behind stone wall
The fighting along this line was over il
ten minutes, and 5000 Federals lay dea
within reach of each other In man
cases three or four men had fallen owe
each other. A shell from gun on tn
hill exploded in the midst of some Ne,
Hampshire troops and killed sergeant
corporal and twelve privates, an
wounded six others. Before the Unio
troops crossed the river, and while shell
ing the town, a shell struck house an