Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1881-05-14
After the Battle.
THE PERUVIAN BATTLEFIELD WHEN THE
VICTORY WAS WON.

Procuring saddle horses the writer of
out to the battle field. Before we reached
the spot we could smell the stencil, as
the wind was blowing from it towards
us. The flies began to bother our ami
mails, and we soon reached the first sub
iect. 1t was dead cholo, or Peruvian
Indian, with his rifle and forty Or fifty
cartridges lying near, also bag OF
mouldy bread. He had a. bayonet stab
in the breast and his skull was broken
in by blow from a musket stock-as it
is said the Chilians finish their victims
in this style. Benzine had been poured
over this body and then set on fire. The
flames had run swiftly over, burning
the clothing and portions of the body,
and then went out. So there he lay In
a half consumed condition just where
he fell week before. We soon found
others in the same condition, and then
groups of five and ten in a pile; some
on their backs, others lying on their
face as they were dragged up and flung
together by the Chilian soldiers. All
seemed to be with their legs and arms
spread out and distorted, probably by
the action of the fire. In many places
the head had been burned off at the
neck, and the hands and feet were gone,
as the fingers and small bones of the
feet would burn quicker than the larger
mass of flesh. We saw no carrion eating
birds, but the flies fairly covered us and
everything else. We saw many dead
and wounded horses. Often the latter
were standing around ON three legs,
some unable to move and others trying
to crop few spears of grass that grew
close by. We noticed one large, fine fell
low, with hind leg at the ankle almost
severed. It was black with flies, and he
was slowly dying of modification. Poor
suffering fellow! We tried to fit a car
fridge into Remington rifle for the
purpose of putting him out of his mis-
cry, but could not. At Mirafores,
mounted on All cid incahuaca or tomb,
we founda Dalhgren 11inch smooth bore
of 1868, weighing over sixteen thousand
pounds. 1t stood solitary and alone out
on the plain, with its dead gunners ly-
ing around. Arms were found all over
the valley, and cartridge boxes nicely
filed, with not single cartridge miss
ing, showing that they had been cast off
and thrown away before the fire of
shot. 1t was actually pitiabie to see the
waste of ammunition here. Everywhere
in the track of the retreating army the
the ground is thickly sown with it.
Often we came across cases of ammuni-
tion lying in the dust of the public road
that had never been opened-too value
less to carry away. In one place, in a
small graveyard where the fight had
ragged very hot, the unburied dead lay
thick on the graves, and in receptacle
for a coffin in the thick wall--a sort OF
large pigeon hole-we saw dead sol
der with his feet protruding from the
aperture. He had been wounded and
crawled in to die, thus burying himself
before death found him. Along the pub
lie highway we constantly came across
bodies, some with little dirt shoveled
over them, some half consumed, and
others just as they fell. They were on
their backs, with arms extended and
head thrown back, mouth wide open
and face upturned in mute appeal to
the clear, Implying sky. The whole
valley is crossed in all directions with
adobe walls, breast high and from fif-
teen to eighteen inches thick, and in
many places the Peruvians had dug out
loopholes with their bayonets and posted
field artillery in different places. Now,
here were the Peruvians in possession
of those natural Observation-Disclosures
works so close together that the Chilian
cavalry could not operate, and yet they
failed to hold this excellent position.