The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-12-01

Or Of the Confederate and Union uni
form.
''AIe dit towers FOR me bigsoger papa
mama tell me dit fowers-'0o title dirl
dit 90 towers p
AS she put this last query, with inf
mite swet tness-the rosy face SO close
to my bearded face, the innocent eyes
SO trustingly looking into mine-stern,
battle-stained soldier as was, I quite
to her swayand with a
sudden impulse pressed the little rebel
close to my heart and touched her-cheek
wit my lips.
I was standing on the steps leading
into the hall as my lips pressed her
cheeks; lifting my eyes from the child,
saw the mothers face, white, alright
ed and horror struck. a sudden chill
swept over me, a revulsion of feeling
a sort of resentment and dislike toward
a women who could feel in that way be-
cause a Union soldier caressed her child
Had been a boa constructor she could
have evinced ne stronger aversion and
fright. I set the baby down on the
floor.
A cry broke from the woman's lips,
almost shrek; she threw up her arms
with in gesture of despair.
"Oh you, yOu, you, who killed her
father"
Then she turned and fed down the
wall, and disappeared in one of the
chambers.
Shocked, amazed, panied at the sudden
revulsion in my own breast from gentle
tenderness to dislike, caused by the ha-
tredI was my unmerited portion
from this woman; the revulsion from
thoughts and feeling of peaceful ma
ture to thoughts and feelings of war,
mechanically followed the little girl as
she toddled on tightly holding her skirt
full of flowers. She entered the room
in which her mother had disappeared;
the door stood wide open; the glimpse I
caught of the scene in that room arrest
ed my steps. 1 stood for a moment
stone still and gazed upon it.
lay tall stalwart form clothed in faded
rebel gray. The gray was stained with
blood, and dust, and all the implements
of9war were yet upon the man. A sabre
hung at his side, its point touching the
floor. A pistol was stuck in his belt. Buj
the hand that lay by the sabre's handle
was cold and stiff, and the face of the
dead rebel was as calm and placidas i
his soul had not rushed out in the fierce
storm of human warfare.
By the side of the dead Rebel knsIt the
woman who had accused me of murder
ing the child's father. It seemed to bt
the habit of rebel women to hold every
individual Union soldier responsible fol
every evil deed done in the war. The
woman's face was hidden in the breas
of the dead husband, her arms were ove
him. At the foot of the couch sat the
yellow woman, grim, wrinkled and gray
If either the slave or the,mistress knew
that strange eyes, the eyes they most ha'
ted, were on them, they made no sign
The yellow woman sat in stoney silence
never lifting lid, and the white woman
never lifted her head.
The little thing with flowers. and the
glad blue eyes. broke the sorrowful 81.
lence, but the breaking brought tears
even to my unaccustomed eyes. 1t was
singularly touching.
Utterly unconscious of the condition
of her father, abe gleefully ran to his side
kissed his cheeks, his lips, the lids of hi
lifeless eyes. She called him "to wax,
up" to ''talk to his title dirl."
"See!" she cried, "See Big, sweet so
ger, papa! 90 title dirl bring 90 flowers
Wake up and tiss 90 title dirl."
But that rebel father lay still and 81
lent. Never more would he res ond I,
that tender call, never again answer lha
sweet carassing.
Oh the cruel war-cruel war
Silently stole away. shrunk from
again meeting the reproachful eyes o
those sorrow-stricl1en women, I stol,
out of the house, regained my horse
which the woman had hitched to a os
in the yard, and galloped rapidly on t.
rejoin the soldiers.
I The stirring events of that first day il
Cardinals Capital, the awful night @
that day-a night whose terrors and hoI
rors revalled the terrors and horrors sui
/ fered by captured cities in the dark ages
swept from my mind all memory of tn
painful and pathetic picture presente,
by the rebel with his wife's fac
hidden in his blood-stained bosom, an
the child trying to wake and WOO him t
caress her. Painful as was this picture
deep toned as it was with wars ssvag
colors, it paled before the first night i
fated Columbia. The city was doome,
to destruction even before the army eros
sed the Savannah river. e AS our soldier
looked over the river on the State the
considered the hot bed Of Secession,
"howl of delight" rent the air which Ger
eral Sherman heard with a grim smil
that BODIED no good to the conquered an
PROSTATE people.
The terrible work did not fairly begi
until night, and did not reach its fuI
achme of horror until midnight, at whic
time fierce storm of fire was raging owe
the city.
AS soon as night SCI in, inAamed b
drink, mad with hate and lust of rc
venge, soldiers went from house to hous
with vessels of combustible liquids an
cotton balls saturated in the liquiC
pouring the contents on floors and wall
throwing the balls on wooden roofs an