St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-04-09

their Justly troubled minds, the situa-
ton of things and the plan of proper
retiring were made known to the men.
The movement was quickly organized
and executed. Each alternate man
was to stay fast in his pit and dig more
demonstratively than ever, while the
others, each company in charge of its
second officer, should noiselessly retire
to the nearest advantageous ground
and form in extended order faced to
the front, and there stand until the
remaining line should in like manner
have taken position in their rear, when
they in turn were to retire behind this
second line. In that way we could at
least prevent the enemy from follow
ing us up too recklessly and could
come off the field in good order.
Those who were the last to evacuate
the rifle-pits had to use caution, trail
ing their pieces, and with anything
but the soldiers erect bearing. We
had fallen back but few yards when
the black flying clouds broke apart in
riffs and the moonlight struck us into
full view and the CLEAN of the musket
barrels made us for the moment a
shining mark. "TO the ground, every
man of you," and they fell fiat and
motionless at the word. From that
time we had to watch the favOring
obscurity of the flying clouds. We,
too, had caught a glimpse of the en-
envy creeping forward from their rifle
pits and were aware that they were
! following us, though perhaps In their
| ignorance of the field and of the mean
ing of our movements, quite as scared
as we were and possibly not wholly
callOus to the appalling images of
havoc through which we had to pass.
Mangled forms, rent and tossed as If
the maddened beasts of the arena had
run riot among them; limbs flung from
their bodies and half trampled into the
bloody mire grim faces, stark and
stiff, into which the light of the wan
| ing moon struck u more than deadly
pallOr-a phantom light as of some
thing neither dead nor living, with Il
| fxedness that was more than stiffness );
! open eyes that saw not, but seemed to
see more than human hands that still
grasped their muskets with a clutch no
| living strength cOuld loosen the ghost
| w CLEAN of the scattered musket bar
rels weaving an unearthly web, or IL
bright sword blade flashing back us if
still swung by the valorouS arm that
had given it life for its deadly stroke.
| Phantasmal martyr-pyres, the heaped,
incongruOus ruins of a lost battery
horses, cannOneers, dismOunted guns,
splintered ammunition chests, crushed
wheels, overturned carriages, the
| tongue erect in the air, the pole yOkes
swinging gibbet-like on high, looming
suddenly on you with a shuddering
light, then vanishing as from the earth,
when the swift dragOn-clOud smites
the face of moon, and blackened night
swallows up the hideOus scene. All
save where on the far edge of the field
some solitary lantern Sways and sails,
] like the weird lowering will-O'-the-
wisp, while unwearying love seeks still
| the living among the dead.
| Midway i'll our course we passed q
house around which terrible slaughter
| had ragged, the wrecks still lying where
they fell. | remember bnt too well
| how the night wind shrieked and howl
ed about the desOlate walls and rooms
"A voice as of innumerable spirits that
could not rise-while some swinging
door or blind sounded like the Tapping
wings of the demon of doom. | do not
think there has ever been moment in
my life since when the sound of that
wind has been out of my ears.
We were able by our orderly move
ment, however hurried, to bring off
such of the wounded as we encOunt-
cred on the abandoned field. At the
bridge head we gathered and waited
little for all that should pass over
before us; and fingered still, us if
lOath to turn away, held back by Il
sigh of the night-wind, like the last
wall of the stricken field, that took the
breath from our bOsOms and the
strength from our limbs.
But the rain fell now in torrents !;
the bridge-boats creaked as the swell
ing current rushed by; the narrow
plankway, bedded with earth to dead
en- sound, stretched out into the dark
ness, reckoning us to nOiseless pas
sage, as from world to world. For a
little while, it swayed beneath our
tread men stood by the anchor lines,
few fingered at the further fasten-
ings. "Cut the guys ~ the last order
fell the great pOntoons swung to the
hither shore, and the river ran, cold
and dark, between us and our dead
that had died i'll vain. Il Congregation
alist.