Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-11-27
a a. HAND IN a LETTER d,
An Incident After the Battle 81 Ant,etan

II
An Incident: After the battle 81 Antietam.
Gathered about an Office window,
overlooking Market square, was q
group OF veterans of the late war, who
had been with Grant, and the death of
the great military captain, and the
noble tribute which the nation had
paid to his memory, VAS the subject
OF conversation. Many and interest
ing were the bits, Of personal reminis-
cence related on that occasion, and as
the twilight shadows gradually gave
way to the deeper darkness Of the
night, and clouds Of purple smoke
curled upward and hung like q grace
ful undulating web overhead the
mind was insensibly carried back to
Tthose days OF anxiety and dread,
when the national life trembled in the
balance: Memory like a huge :pendu-
lum swinging imperceptibly between
| the past and the present brought
wildly to- mind the SCIENCES Of
other days, and the veterans
gave themselves uD to ~ O. season
OF "reminiscences, and striking incidents
of bivOuac, camp and battlefield
where narrated with that directness
and impressive effect which only o
man who has been an actor in the
scenes described can give to his story.
The season of storytelling had con-
tinued for some time when one of the
party who had previously been
an interested listener to the narratives
OF his friends said as he tilted his
chair against the WALL "There was
one incident in my army experience
which above all Others has impressed
itself indelibly on my mind. 1t is but
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
my memory as the finding of a little
letter belonging to q rebel artillery
man who had fallen under our fire.
You remember that battle as we'll as
do, so that need not go over the
i details Of the engagement. Our bait
terry, with several others, had a posi-
ton 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 LETT,
which was directly in front of US, was
held by several batteries, and I tell
you they made it warm for us. The
next day after Lee had withdrawn his
army some of the boys wanted to 20
over the ground occupied by the rebel
batteries so as to ascertain how effect
i've our fire had been, The necessary
permission was obtained, anda party
OF four or five started. When we
reached the rising ground occupied by
the rebel artillery the scene which met
our view was g. terrible one. On
ground plowed and furrowed by our
shot and shell lay inghastly confusion
the dead bodies of men and horses,
wrecked caissons and splintered tim
bers, while in an irregular, 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 those spectacles,
and so we passed ON taking mental
note OF the accuracy of our fire as
shown In the number and positions OF
the dead. While thus engaged we
found lying on the ground the body of
a rebel sartilleryman who had been
killed by bursting shell. His KNAPP
sack had at the same time been shat
tered 80 that part Of it's contents had
fallen on the ground near him. There
was nothing in his appearance to at
tract special attention any more than
the thousands who like him had fall
len, but out of curiosity I picked I'D a.
letter much soiled by frequent hand
ling and proceeded to read it. NV
comrades gathered around me, and at
their request read the missive aloud.
It made no pretensions to elegance of
diction, nor was the spelling Of the
words employed always correct, but
it was the message of O. young wife.
who, from her home in n small Ala
bama.town, had sent to her husband
the tidings Of the birth OF a daughter.
It had been written , in. September,
1851, nearly asyear previous, and in
it's simple phrases of love and solici-
t,,de 8 truly. touching. The letter
made it's impression upon us, but on
turning it over we noticed the
outlines Of baby's hand. The moth
or had evidently taken the little ones
hand, placed it on the paper and then
with a pencil traced it's outlines. This
outline was then dotted with ink so rs
to bring it Out more clearly. Within
the lines were written the simple
words MARTINI Virginia, her hand
| sents her Pa, y while on, the outside
the Message appeared, "1fyou want to
kiss the baby yon must kiss this
hand" The boys drew around me
and gazed at that little sketch, and
am not sure that most of them did
not take OF their caps. When look
ed up from the lnissive ] saw lips quiv-
er and now and then a: tear take it's
course silently#down cheeks bronzed
and rdened. What was there in
that little letter! to smakessmen who
could gaze without emotion on slaugh-
; tered thousands soften under it's in
! t]uence? Was It because it told the
story ofthe purest love, or because we
knew that often in the still hours Of
the night that letter had been taken
from its plaeesto be read, perchance to
be caressedY Vas it because it brought
forciblY,. to- mind the thought that
many OF our own fallen boys in Blue
had, too, some keepsake, some SOU
venir of loved ones at home, whose
/ grief and tears and heartache would
be their only requiem? [ know not
what it was only know that to me
/ that little hand, standing out in its
I dotted Outlines from its soiled white
1 background, told me how terrible