The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1884-12-19
THE BATTLE FIELD
As an Old Soldier Describes It in
His Diary.
Quite Different from the Sentimental
Gush or the Orator-Lookfng
Over the Field-Burying q"
the Dead. -.s<
fPittsourQ Dispatch. I


about the field Of carnage. He says the
ground is red with blood, and that dead
bodies lie 80 thickly that one cannot walk
without treading upon them. This Is the
veriest bosh imaginable. How many men
would 1t have taken to thickly strew the bat
tle-feld of Chaplin Hills, or how much blood
to paint 1t redi The ground fought over was
about nine miles In lsngth, and from one ia "a
the cavalry operations. There were not men
enough in both armies to "strew 1t thickly"
If every one of them had been killed and
strewn around. The diary from which the
sketch Of the battle was taken contains the
notes of a tour Of a portion Of the field the
next day, which are more reliable than the
sentimental gush of the orator, or the lurid
sketches Of the war correspondent:
FIELD HOSPITAL, CHAPLIN HILLS, KY,
Oct. 9.-Fighting Is bad business. 1t is cruel;
It is damnable; but there Is only room
enough in this country for one flag, and that
flag is the "stars and stripes" Men may
come and men may go, but the old flag shall
stay forever.
Bragg skipped off last night in the direc-
ton of Harrodsburg. Our batteries sent out
feeiers. but got no response, and 1t was not
long after daylight until it was learned they
dh bohc, baE aho oubSnoct aOo@'A' e@@~A@
dead for US to bury. They sent in burial
squads last night, but, instead Of looking
a. ter their killed, they went to killing our
pckets, whereupon tine truce was declared
of, and their squads sent back. All day
lo9g ambulances kept coming in with
wounded that had been picked up in odd
places or overlooked last night
The rebels were kind TO our wounded, al
WAYS giving them attention, but not until
after their own had been cared for. As they
had possession of that portion OF the field
where our regiment did most Of its fighting,
pumber Of our wounded fell into their
hands.
In company with two other slightly
wounded men, went over that portion Of
the field where our division fought The
place looked natural enough, and, save for
the number of twigs and small limbs cover
ing the ground and the scars on the trees
there was nothing to show that anything
unusual had been going on. looked in vain
for the heaps of dead and the pools Of blood,
30 much talked about by stump speakers and
poets. Up on the knoll where We received
the first volley we found three or four bodies.
Then, following the direction Of the regi-
ment as IL changed front, we found several
more. Down i'm the hollow, where we ham
mered the Twenty-second Mississippi hard,
there were good many dead rebs.
stood up on log, whero could see all
around for u considerable distance, and
could only count about q dozen bodies. As
near as we could estimate, our regiment
fought over fifty acres Of ground. Our loss
I'm killed on the field was about thirty. Sup
posing the rebels lost the same, that would
make sixty, or little more than one man to
the acre. That Is not very thick strewing.
Sometimes there are two or three In place,
but generally they are lying around, every
one to himself.
There were details from each regiment
sent out to gather up their dead and bury
them. The four killed in my company were
buried under an oak tree on the hillside near
where they fell Stout stakes were driven
In the ground at the head OF each
grave, on Which was carved the
name Of the occupant The names
were also carved on the oak tree, to-
gether with the number Of the grave. The
best we could do was to wrap the boys in
their blankets closely, cover them over with
leaves, and then tumble in the dirt 1t was
not much like a funeral-it was more Of q
business matter. The idea was to keep the
bodies in as good shape as possible, SO they
NAV be recognized IL their friends come after
them.
suppose our folks at home would think US
q hard lot il they could see how indifferently
we look ON q dead man, While out in the
the cornfield, near where Loomis' battery had
such q long, hard tussle, l saw them carry a
lot of dead rebels up to where long trench
had been dug. There must have been fifty
bodies, and when the trench was finished
they commenced putting them in. At first
they were dropped down carefully, but tbs
boys got tired, as it was very Unpleasant
job, and began tumbling them in with hand
spikes, as they would log.
Sometimes one would tumble in face down
ward, and the boys would sing out: 3About
face" @Close up on the lett" "Cover your file
leader" IF you get tired turn over" and the
like. It sounded a little rough, but these are
rough times, and this is rough business; be-
sides, these are rough men. They are from
Kentucky, and they / ate a rebel even after
he is dead.
While coming back to the hospital we
found Ike Green, Of c company, hanging
across the fence dead. He gave out yester-
day while we were on the skirmish line, and
he was not able to get into wagon. After
getting rested suppose he started to hunt us
up, and while climbing over the fence he was
struck with a bullet, and there he stopped.
The ball passed through his stomach and
and spine He was no coward, else he would
have faced the other way when he had such
. good chance. .. ...-. z- ..
Several dead men have been found in hol-
low logs or behind logs or rocks, as though
they had been wounded and crawled In there
to protect themselves. One poor fellow sat
-. ,xyst pib1o In. nd
He had been passed dozen times and more
during the day by ambulance drivers and
burial squads, but they all thought that he
was alive. He had been shot In the thigh,
and he had gone to this tree for protection.
Taking his Bible out, he thought, no doubt,
that he would find consolation in reading it,
but while sitting there ball cut him through
the back OF the neck deep enough to break
the spinal cord. His head dropped forward
little, and there he sat.
Over in the open field, where Harris bat
terry was posted, the ground was torn up aw-
fully. Had we remained there with 1t, we
would have been terribly hammered. There
must have been at least dozen dead horses
around there, but somehow there were not
many men hurt guess shells do their most
effective work In soaring the boys Shells
howl frightfully.
There were q good many solid.shot and
shell lying around, ana cuiels were snlck
enough when one got down and looked closely
for them,
Laying Sentiment aside and holding your
nose 20 you couldn't smell tho dead horses,
you would not have been able 10 see any
thing about that old cornfeld different from
any other cornfield. In fact, person not
aware Of what had been going on there might
easily pass from one end of the field to tho
other without knowing be was on battle
field There is great deal written about
battles and battle fields that is not borns out
by the factA
Cash ON nuels,
tChicago Herald
Col, cash, the notorious South Carolina