The National tribune., 1881-09-03

TO dream of such Journey would he mad
ness; to devise it, thing incredible; to do it, a
deed impossible. But Grant was guilty of them
ALL and was equal to the work. The story of the
battle of Mission Ridge is struck with immOr-
tality already let the leader of the Fourth Corps
bear it company.
That the centre yet lies along its silent line is
still true: in five minutes it will be the widest
fiction. Let us take that little breath of grace
for Just one glance of the surroundings, since we
shall have neither heart nor eyes for it again.
Did ever battle have so vast cloud of witnesses.
The hive-shaped hills have swarmed. Clustered
like bees, blackening the house-tops, lining the
Notifications, over yonder across the theatre, in
the seats with the Catlines- hun
dred thousand behoders. Their souls are in
their eyes Not a murmur that you can hear.
1t is the most solemn congregation that ever
stood in the presence of the God OF battles. |
think of Bunker Hill as stand here; of the thou
sands who witnessed that immortal struggle and
fancy there is a parallel. | think, too, that the
chair of every man Of them all will stand vacant
against the wall to-morrow-for tomorrow is
Thanksgiving-and around the treside they
must give thanks without him, if they can.
y \
whose names will need no Old Mortality to chsel
them anew, stood upon Orchard Knob. The hero
of VcIsburg was there, calm, clear, persistent. far
seeing Thomas, the sterling and sturdy: Meigs.
Hunter Granger Reynolds. Clusters of humber
mortalS were there too, but it was anything
but turbulent crowd the voice naturally
fell into a subdued tone, and even young
faces took on the gravity of later years. An
order was given, and in an instant the Knob
was cleared like a ships deck for action. At
twenty minutes of four Granger stood upon the
parapet by Bridges's battery; the bugle swung
idly at the bugIer's side, the warbling fife and
grumbling drum unheard: there was to he 7ouder
talk-six guns at intervals of two seconds the
signal to advance. Strong and steady his voice
rang out, "Number one, fire. Number two, fire !.
Number three, fire." 1t seemed to me the toll
ing Of the clock Of destiny: and when at Num-
Der sin fire." the roar throbbed out with the
fash, YOU should have seen the dead line that
had been lying behind the works all day, all
night, all day again come to resurrection in the
twinkling OF an eye, leap bike a blade from its
scabbard, and sweep with twO-mile stroke to-
ward the Ridge From divisions to brigades,
from brigadcs to regiments. the order ran. A
minute and the skirmishers deplOy; minute
and the first great drops begin to patter along
the line; minute, and the muslietry is in full
play like the cracking Whips of hemlock fire
Men 90 down here and there before your eyes:
the wind lifts the smoke and drifts it away over
the top Of the Ridge: everything is too distinct :
it is talr V pGIpa6Ie: you can touch it with your
hand. The divisions Of Wood and Sherman are
wading
BREAsT-DEEP IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH.
never can tell you what it was like. They
pushed out, leaving not = nd them. There
was no reSery alton in Il On moves the
line of skirmshers. lik, trown. and after
it, at quick time, the spienulu columns. At right
of lis and left OF and front OF us, you can see
the bayonets glitter in the SIN. You cannot per
suade yourself that Bragg was wrong, day or
two AGO, when seeing Hooker moving in he said
Now we shall have Potomac review" that
this is not the parade he prophesied: that it is
Of truth the harvest of death to which they
90 down. And so through the fringe Of woods
went the line. Now, out into the open ground
they burst into the double-quck. Shall call it
Il Sabbath days journey, or long halt-m.le? To
me, that watched, it seemed endless as eternity,
and yet they made it in thirty minutes. The
tempest that now broke upon their heads was
terrible. The enemy'S fire burst out of the rifle
pits from base to summit Of Mission Ridge: five
batteries of PARROTS and NapoleOns opened along
the crest Grape and canister and shot and shell
sowed the ground with rugged iron and garnshed
it with the wounded and the dead: but steady
and strong our columns moved on. And over
their heads as they went, Forts Wood and Neg
lev struck straight out like mighty pugilists
right and left. raining their iron blows uron the
Ridge from base to crest. Forts Palmer and
King took up the quarrel, and MOccasin Point
cracked its fiery whips and lashed the sury left
BridgeS'S battery, from Orchard Knob leIow
thrust it's pondcroUs fists in the face of the
enemy and planted blows at will. Our artillery
was doing splendid service. 1t laid its shetland
shell wherever il pleased. Had giants carried
them by hand they could hardly have been more
accurate. All along the mountains side in he
enemys riie-pits, Oh the crest. they fairly dotted
the Ridge Granger leaped down. sighted gun,
and in moment, right in front, a great volume
Of smoke like the cloud by day" lifted off the
summit from among the batteries and huns
m0tionless kindling in the sun. The shot had
struck a caSson. and that its dying breath.
In five minutes away tlOated another. \ shell
went crashing through building in the cluster
that marked Braggs headquarters; a second
killed the skeleton horses of a battery at his
7 Il, ,.,.,l.