San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-05-04


times did the confederates ovs,,. :.
lines and turn his left flank p Ip Dis
each occasion the men changed on
under terrific fire and thus saved 'v %
flank. 1e
At noon there was another lull n.
cock could not be driven furtbs, Ian
men of flesh and blood could mo lov and
stand the strain. The moment s q
fighting ceased hundreds of Tue Me
dropped down aud lay painting len e
dogs after long chase. For neaslr nse
hour a federal and confederate rso ~
ment lay within 200 feet of each ot Isr
without firing shot, and federal ~.
poral who had stripped off his coat sns
Jacket and lost his cap, called out 10 u
confederate sergeant whom he con,s
have hit with peachstone:
"Hello, Johnny! Whose command
is that?'
"Longstreet's," was the reply.
"Bully for Lrngstreet!"
who's your general?" asked tbe
confederate.
"Then bully for him; sbut you 'uns
have got to git out of herel"
From noon until o'clock SedgvicL
and Ewell hammered away and pileS
up the dead without driving each other
a hundred feet, but Hancock and Lone.
street were preparing for the bloodiest
grapple which war ever saw betweentbe
wings of an army.
FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE.
Grant could not drive Lee. Could
Lee drive Grant? If Longstreet could
push Hancock back over the Brock
road, Grant was shut up in the Wilder.
ness. If Hancock could hold the Brock
road Grant had an open route across
Lees front to Spottsylvania. In hold.
ing that road Grant was, therefore,
fighting for his life. Gibbons division
was pushed forward to support Han.
cock, batteries hauled through swamps
and thickets, the stragglers driven into
line, and then, for quarter Of an
hour, there was an ominous silence.
Hancock was drawing full breath
Longstreet was bracing his nerves.
There had been such fighting in those
tangled woods as war had never seen
before. Desperate fighting would not
save the Brock road-desperate fight.
ing would not carry it.
Longstreet attacked. That murder
GUS silence was broken by the yells and
shouts of four lines of battle rushing
forward upon Hancock. 1t was like an
avalanche striking wall. The wall
stood firm, then began to groan, and
labor, and lose it's line, and it was being
swept away when Gibbons division
rushed in. The confederates did not
halt to fire, but came charging on with
the bayonet right up to the lines Of
blue, so that blue and gray fought hand
to hand on a front more than mile
long.
In the fiercest of the struggle, when
it seemed that the giving way Of a
single company might turn the SCALE
Longstreet was struck by bulleta and
disabled, and before his successor
could come forward and grasp the
situation the moment was passed, ana
the Brock roa was saved. 1t lsa
dark and lonely highway as you rlae
over it to-day, and every foot OF 1t
has story of blood. The burial parties
found hundreds who had crawled lnte
the thickets and swamps and died.
and years after the government con,
tractors, who we're removing the deaa
to the national cemeteries, found scores
of skeletons which had never oeen
buried at all.
WHEN NIGHT FELL
Lee was still attacking, but ne was
striking an iron plate from when eV,
cry blow rebounded. He had na!eu
Grants march, but he had hot 10,
feated him. Grant had not driven
Lee, but he had saved his road ous
of that horrible slaughter pen. Neit1er
had secured an advantage, but uhusi
the pines we've thousands OF deaa,
thousands of MANNED and cflPP1eu,
and as twilight faded into darkn ;1os
along that front of seven m ios
stretching over swamp and tno sa.
there arose direful sound. 1t was
murmur at first. Then it swelled "
a steady cry--not one shout or g .Ssm
or shrek, but thousands OF 'ne 1a-
mingled together and quavering T }ita
thicket and rising over the pines I'M r.
the wall of a gathering tempest. o, ~
was the cry of the wounded ana n sny.
less as night added to the loneiS A''
rors of that sombre wilderness.