National Republican., 1883-04-05
THE ROAR OF BATTLE.
The Revelation Of Startling Possibilities it
Brings to Old "Vets" and Raw Recruits.
Scenes Witnessed in Rear Of the First
Days Fight in the Wilderness.
Tenderness With Which tho Wants Of The Wounded
Are Supplied as They Are Borne TO The Rear.
Some Differences Between Brave Men and
Cowards-The Grim Order 60 "Go In"
For the Republicdn.

When the terrific outburst Of firing occurred
in front every man sprang to his feet and
grasped his piece. Confined in the galleries
of the woods the sound swept over us and
around us, an inarticulate, angry roar, as il
beched out of the mouth of a monster stone
blast and imagined could feel an atmos-
pheric wave in my face. 1t was apparently
so near that most of us expected TO see a con-
federate line of battle come crashing and yell
ing out of the woods before us.
Hey, boys here they Gomez sang out
little Barney, the youngest member of the
company, slim youth of 16, with voice
like girl and the diminutive patriot began
hurriedly fastening on his accoutrements,
struggling with buckles and straps in a fran
tic effort to be on hand for the first shot.
"Won't we give them II blessin' in minute ~
You'll get all the blessin' you want"
growled Rieman, saturnine veteran of tho
earlier battles of the war. "Them little thin
legs of your'n II be skippen for the river be-
fore night"
Rieman had some excuse for his skepticism
in the fact that this was about No. 6 of his
trips south of the Rappahannock, in each of
which he had been hunted back with q
clerity that had unsettled his faith in the sue
cess of all southern movements.
Barney was new hand, and was still clad
ip the garments of sublime self-confidence,
WHICH lUb TOuBu DhnullnR Ol UDO DTBNlOuS
campaigns of the army of the Potomac had
rudely torn from the old "vets." With q
grave shake Of his young, curly head, he re-
piled:
"Mebbe so, b ut guess you'll be there, too.
just remember" he added, with part cock
ing of his eye upward. Just remember, you
never had me with you before, or you might'n
have skedaddled SO quick"
A burst of laughter from all within hearing
greeted this little piece of bravado, and with
a slightly abashed air Barney slipped out of
sight.
The uproar in front was the production of
Getty's division of the 9Th corps, who were
holding the crossing of the Brock road, along
which, but far to the left, Hancock was hur-
rying forward to fill the gaps in the disjointed
line.
Now and then q bullet, flying high, came
drOning its weird song through the branches,
and with sharp spat announced that its de-
structivc mission was ended. A few pieces Of
artillery lent their loud voices to the tumult
which had so suddenly broken in on the still
air Louder and louder grew the terrific
clamor, extending to the right and left like a
fire in dry stubble and the air staggered un-
der its burden of sound. 1t seemed as if the
earth had gathered together all her thunder
tones and was sending them on high in an
angry protest against the bloody work being
done on her bosom
had never been under fire. To them it was
revelation of possibilities very startling and
suggestive in their nature 1t was the dream
become fact
Very few of tho epochs of q life produce
such marked effect on a man rs his intro
duction to battle. Before he was an igno-
ramus in the realm of sensations. At the
time he has confused sense of standing in
the presence of a personifed something SO
majestic, so awful, that, in his human little
ness, he is mere atom. But he grows, and in
his growth he absorbs, so to speak, portion
of the essence of this unnamable something,
so that after he feels his being has acquired
new clement. He has been part of the
highest exemplifcation of human force, and
has become soldier. He may have played
at tmilitary service in the militia, and marched
and camped and dress paraded and sham bat
tied, and then gone back to his books, or his
shop, or his plough the same man he was be-
fore. But the battle has riveted on its foun-
dation whatever there was of the real man in
him, and he can never 60 back.
When it became settled that we were still
behind part of our own force, and no orders
were received to move ahead, the arms were
re-stacked and we resumed our attitude of
waiting. There were q good many faces
which had lost their color, and among the
new men many an ominous glance was cast
into the dim gulfs of the forest, and many a
little leaden messengers went humming by.
The old men, however, had returned to their
fires and were busily engaged in culinary
operations, which apparently never ceased.
They were always cooking something. Each
meal seemed to be simply an adjournment of
some previous unfinished meal. 1t began at
the opening of campaign and, travelling
through u multitude of installments, reached
the dessert when the army went into winter
quarters.
So on the present occasion, before the col
umn had been at rest sixty seconds, o myriad
of " smokes" began to curl upward, carrying
aloft the dubious fragrance of coffee cooked in
an open pail or cup. Every man was his own
cook and prepared the contents of his larder
in accordance with the dictates of his own
sweet will. Consequently when the propri-
etOr of one of these travelling kitchens failed
to thoroughly cleanse his utensils after use,
his decoction of coffee would be very likely to
have tolerably strong aroma of boiled beans
or pork or any meat or vegetable delicacy ho
might have acquired on the march, and vice
versa. | think the most villainous fayors
chat were ever evolved by art from nature
We're produced by the writer in an attempt to
make coffee in a spider which had Just been
released from the duty of stewing dried apples
and frying slice of spoiled ham.
Listening to the rolling thunder of a. battle
one cannot see the imagination is let loose to
needed before the eyes of those actually en-
gagged. So we listened that hot afternoon
whilo going about the various trivial duties
which claimed our attention, picturing to
ourselves the stirring and horrible tragedies
which we knew were being enacted under
the canopy of foliage that reared itself aloft
in front. As yet our ears alone were furn-
ishod with evidence of the struggle, but soon
white mass of powder smoke foatcd up
above the trees and drifted heavily off to lee
ward, like the great banks of cloud which
come sailing Zip the dome of the sky at the
close of q summer day.
And soon, out of the gloomy forest aisles,
painfully breaking their way through the
tangled underground, came men with crimson
splashes ON their dark blue uniforms and
their faces stained black with powder some
of them still clinging to their guns, but the
greater number bearing nothing except their
canteens. From the intolerable thirst pro-
ducod by gunshot wounds the soldier soon
learns that he can have no better friend than
his canteen, and he will retain this when
arms, cartridge box, and haversack have been
flung on the ground.
Those who reached our line were at once
taken in hand, and there was touching
pathos in the tenderness with which their
wants were anticipated by the boys of our
command.
Then came the stretcher bearers with their
moaning burdens, on their way to thea mbu-
lance, by which tho severely wounded were
conveyed TO the field hospitals. This was the
wreckage of the battle, floating out into the
sun light and darkening its mellow radiance
nj ffsl