The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-01-12


:. commanders of brigades and divi
4 ions asked each other what th
!. silence meant. Not living Cor
!, federate could be seen, ard wins
: was passing under the pines no ma
: knew. Beaten back in those tw
: desperate charges the Confederate
were the more determined. The
| had attacked by regiments and fail
= ed. Now they would attack b.
r brlgades and divisions and succeed
At O'CLOCK, as the sun hung like
great ball OF fire above the trees
fury was let loose. Scarcely a guI
/, was fired as warning. All of ;
sudden 200 Confederate field piece:
were gallopcd to positions along the
far edges of the fields and at once
opened terrible fire on Malvern
Hill. Three hundred guns instantly
replied, and the roar of that terrible
artillery duel was plainly heard
thirty miles away. For half an hour
hill and dale was envelOped in semi
darkness, through which flames
darttd and missels shrleked. Then
the Confederate batteries sudden ly
ceased, and the gray infantry moved
out of the woods. Over the bloody
grass--over the dead--a mighty
torrent Of war swept forward to do
or die. Death swooped down from
the plateau and claimed SCORES and
hundreds: The gun boats hurled
death to hundreds more, but those
lines never stopped till within thirty
yards of the creek. Then COUGHS
men rose up and swept them off
their feet with one terrific Yolley.
The Federal cheers had not yet died
away when the gray masses came
again, Rrigades reduced to 700
men by that fire rallied and reform
ed where the corpses lay three deep
and dashed at the hill on the double
quick, but not to reach it. Three
five successive times those
gray lines rallied aud rushed, and
field batteries crept forward over
the corpses until the color of the
gunners' eyes could be told by the
men under the hill. When the sun
went down the fight was ended.
McClellan's position was impregna
bic. His left wing aloIe had beaten
back Eve times its strength, and the
army WHICH had so exultantly pur
sued, and which was so persistently
determined to destroy, was shatter-
ed to the core. Those who looked
down from Round Top at Gettys-
burg after Longstreet's charge did
not see such sight as the men who
looked across the meadows of the
Crews farm. The horrors of war
left footprints there which fifty years
of time will not effaee.
Not hundred trees are missing
from that dark, silent forest. There
they stand, just as when that July
sun went down on those scenes Of
horror. 1t was not tornado WHICH
rent and twisted and shivered, and
left scars and traces to astound. 1t
was not the sudden sweep of whirl-
wind which brought down tree tops
and splintered trunks.
In the sandy bed of dry ravine
in those woods which hid Magru
der's men that day, I found start
ling reminder of that fierce grapple.
There lay an uneXploded hundred
pound shell, just as it crashed |
through the trees. Relic hunters
have carried away thousands of bull
let's and hundreds of pieces of shell, |
and the battlefield has sent to the |
Richmond junk dealers tons upon
tons of lead and iron, but no man
has been bold enough to disturb |
this sleeping monster.
All day long, as cannon roared |
and muskets crashed, Mcclellan was |
hurrying his trains through Deep |
Potion to the river, whose glimmer |
his soldiers could see when the |
smoke lifted. Night brought him
victory, but it also brought retreat
Only when the river was reached |
could the army be fed and reorgan
lied.
The afternoon is waning as turn
for last look at the old brick house
with its scars of ball and bullet. The |
rent and shivered trees cast their
shadows on the bricks. No hand |
has traced word or letter there,
but still 1 read:
Twenty Thousand Federals lie
dead between this hill and the
Chickahomiuy! Who sacrificed |
them?"
Aye! who did2 Who bafIled Nc
Cleian's plans2 Who left that army |
exposed? Who refused him sup
port to make victory of defeat2
Who was it who muttered and sulk- |
ed when that army was rescued and |
crowned with victory?
There is no tablet in the wall, but
across the bullet-chipped bricks
read the words dispatched to Secre
tary Stanton from the Chickahomi-
ny, and never to be forgotten while
history lives:
L know that few thousand more men
would have changed this battle from a
defeat to a victory. AS it is, the gov
eminent must not and cannot hold me
responsible for the results.
1 feel too earnestly tonight. have
seen too many dead and wounded COM
rades to feel otherwise than that the
government has not supported this
army. If you do not do so now the game
is lost.
II save this army now, L tell you
plainly that l owe no thanks to you or
to any other person in Washington.
You have done your best to sacrifice
this army.
History need only preserve the
words. Every house and hill and
forest and meadow, from Malvern
to the dark waters of the Cnicks-
hominy will furnish accusing wit
nesses for half century TO come.
President Arthur seems To profit
by the lessons of the murder OF
Garfield. No STRANGER ia admitted |