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

ened by distance, and the eehoes were
swallowed up by the thickets. To the
r;gbt and left the federals we're advanc'
inc, moving by the flank or retreating,
az thew closed up their lines. An hour
after midnight the frightened bark OF
fox or the note of some night-bird dis
turbed by the pickets were the only
sounds which broke the solemn still
ness of the great wilderness.
Lee had ordered an attack at b a. M
Grant had ordered an attack at pre-,
cisely the same hour. Thus it was that
when Sedgwick marshaled his lines on
the right at daybreak and swept for
ward. he had not advanced 400 feet
when he met the confederates under
Ewell on the march to find him. And
SO. too, when Hancock swept through
the thickets on the left, he found Hills
battle lines of gray waiting his coming.
A battle usually opens with sklrmishes
and maneuvres and more or less artll-
lery firing, and the men have time to
brace themselves for desperate work.
But this battle opened with sudden
crash of musketry which made the for.
est tremble. Itbegan on the right and
ran to the extreme left, distance OF Z
miles. In six minutes after the first
gun was fired, 100000 men were en-
gagged in the bloody strife. Here and
| there a cannon had secured position,
and its hoarse below was heard above
the awful din of the musketry; but the
musket and the bayonet were the only
two weapons depended on by either
commander. Cavalry could not ma
n9uvre, artillery was in the way, and
ambulauces had their covers torn Off
by Jagged limbs, or were mired In the
swamps. ....
ON THE RIGHT.
Lee had massed the weight of his
army on Grants right, and where
Sedgwick was first checked was where
he stood and fought all day. Brigades
and divisions surged forward over
ground thick with corpses and slippery
with blood, to be driven back again by
fire SO hot that the green leaves on
oak and pine were afame over the
heads of the men who fought Bayo-
net charges were made and repulsed,
and hundreds of men dubbed each
other with their muskets and stabbed
each other with knives. At no time
during all that long day, from the
opening of the battle to the shutting
down at night, was there a pause in
this struggle on the right. When reg
iments had been decimated they fell
back to let fresh regiments receive
their baptism of blood and wounds and
death. Men who were wounded before
six in the morning were lying in the
thickets when the sun went down, some
struck four or five times.
There was at one point on the right
cleared spot of about two acres in ex-
tent and federal battery which had
been dragged through the forest was
placed in position here about 7 o'clock
in the morning. In ten minutes three
of the guns were silenced by the mus
kerry fire, and charge was made by
the confederates to capture the whole.
Here two regiments grappled and
fought until 800 men incumbered the
ground. Again the battery opened,
and again it was charged, and when the
confederates retired the dead had to be
corded up to get them out of the way.
Again and again fresh artillerists were
brought up and fresh fire opened, and
again and again the confederates
charged and added scores and hundreds
to that awful pyramid of dead. Grant
had not advanced on his right. Lee
had not advanced on his left. Where
the dead fell in the gray of morning
there was the battle line when night
shuddered at the sights and sounds
ON THE LEFT.
There were hundreds of raw recruits
in Hancock's corps-men who had new
er seen skirmish. They had made q
terrific march and fought brisk battle
the day previous; but when the bugles
sounded the advance in the morning
that corps did not have a hundred
stragglers. The confederates under
Hill were stretched across Hancock's
path, but in Is minutes from the crack |
of the first musket he had walked over
them. They fell back to new line;
but it was only to be driven back
again. Hill could not be routed; but
he was pressed back through tbicket
and forest, until it seemed as if Lees
right wing would be crushed back on
his center. Wadsworth was checked,
but Hancock swept forward like great
wave, capturing colors and prisoners,
nor was he checked until his line of
battle was within musket-shot of the
confederate wagon trains. In three
hours he had driven Hill mile and
half. Time still furnishes proof of
what hell on earth that great wilder
ness was Where one can find tree
the size of his body he can find score
of scars. On the spot where Wadsworth
was killed, one may to-day, in ten min
utes' search, pick up fifty bullets. At
several noints on the Brock road which