The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-09-30
A Hand i'm a Letter.

There was one incident in nv army
experience which, above all others, has
impressed itself ndelibly on my mind.
1t is hnt a simple thing, and possibly
you may smile when | tell you that
amid the awful scenes at the battle of
Antietam no incident fixed itself so
strongly in memory as the finding of a
little letter belonging to a rebel artil-
leryman who had fallen under our fire.
You remember that battle as we'll as |
do, so that | need not 90 over the de-
tails of the engagement. Our battery,
with several others, had a position on
the right of our line, and we had been
pounding away for some hours at Lees
left, when we were ordered to another
position. Later in the day we were
sent back to our old position on the
right and again went at it. The en-
gagement was terrific. Lees left,
which was directly in front of us, was
held by several batteries, and tell you
they made it warm for us. The next
day after Lee had withdrawn his army,
some of our boys wanted to 90 over the
ground lately occupied by the rebel
batteries so as to ascertain how effec-
tive our fire had been. The necessary
permission was obtained and a party of
four or five started. When we reached
the rising ground occupied by the rebel
artillery, the scene which met our view
was terrible one. On ground plowed
and furrowed by our shot and shell lay
in CHASTITY confusion the dead bodies of
men and horses, wrecked caisons and
splintered limbers, while in an irregu-
lar, wavy line, stretching as far as the
eye could reach, the earth was strewn
with the rebel dead. Such scenes did
not affect us much, for we had become
Injured to these spectacles, and so we
passed on, taking mental note of the ac-
curacy of our fire as shown in the num-
Der and positions of the dead While
thus engaged we found lying on the
ground the body of a rebel artilleryman
who had been killed by bursting shell
His knapsack had at the same time
been shattered so that part of its con-
tents had fallen on the ground neal
him. There was nothing in his appear.
ance to attract special attention any
more than the thousands who like him
had fallen, but out of curiosity picked
up letter, much soiled by frequent
handling, and proceeded to read it. Nv
comrades gathered around me, and al
their request | read the missive aloud
1t made no pretentions to elegance OF
diction, nor was the spelling of the sim
pie words employed always correct, but
II was the message of young wife
who, from her home in small Ala,
bama town, had sent to her husband
the tidings of the birth of a daughter
1t had been written in September, 1861
nearly year previous, and its simple
phrases of love and solictude were
truly touching. The letter made its
impression upon us, but on turning il
over we noticed the outlines of babe,
hand The mother had evidently taker
the little one's hand, placed it on tn,
paper and then, witha pencil, traced its
outlines. This outline was then dotted
with ink so as to bring it out NOR,
clearly. Within the lines were writer
the simple words, " Martha Virginia
her hand sent to her Pa" while on til,
outside the message appeared, If you
want to kiss the baby you must kis
this hand" The boys drew around m,
and gazed at that little sketch, and
am not sure that most of them did no
take off their caps. When / looked ~
from the missive saw lips culver anC
now and then tear take its course 81
lently down cheeks bronZed and hard
ened. What was there in that it'll
letter to make men who could gaz