The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-10-06
At GettYSburg.

During the forenoon of the Sd there
was considerable lighting along the line,
which was some five miles in length
The peculiar semi-circular form of our
line gave the effect of our being appar
emily surrounded by fighting. There
was firing in all directions. Then there
was the CHASTITY procession of wounded
men struggling from the front. Men
with blood streaming down their faces
and necks. Men using muskets for
crutches, and men with shattered arms
from which blood was dripping. Barns,
houses and shady yards contained long
rows of wounded men waiting for the sur
| geons' attentions. Some unconscious,
some already dead, and many bearing
in silence their pain with a fortitude
greater than was needed to face danger.
| Going to our regiment in the entrench-
ments on the right of the line, | was
struck by the cool, matter-of-fact way
in which they were loading and firing,
while the dead lay at frequent inter-
walls, and not infrequently some of our
own number fell. And yet it was but
twenty-four hours since they paled at
the sight of blood What curious art
had suddenly transformed them from
timid youths to hardened veterans?
Nor was the change less noticeable in
the field hospitals. Men and boys,
who but short time ago could hardly
bear to see any serious injury, now
carried wounded men to the amputa-
ton table, removed the amputated
limbs which gradually accumulated in
pile near by, and took part in all the
sickening details Of a hospital. And
through it all with a cool and easy way
as if it was round of duties they had
been accustomed to for years. A little
before noon on that Hateful day there
was gradual dying away of the firing.
The artillery ceased entirely, and the
musketry, although not entirely stopped,
subsidized into rafting skirmish fire.
An hour passed. What could it mean?
Something's on foot, you may de-
pend" said veteran. The battles
not ended yet" Scarcely breath of
breeze moved the sultry air, the sun
passed the meridian, and another hour
wore away, when suddenly there
came from Cemetery Ridge on the
west the heavy sound of two cannon
fired in quick succession; and before
their echos had died away the air was
quaking and trembling with the sound
of one hundred fifty cannon loaded and
fired as rapidly as the men could work
them; and all the variety of heavy pro-
jectiles known to modern warfare
were screaming, kissing and roaring
toward our devoted line. But the noise
and roar, terrible as it was, was soon in
creased by the reply of our own artillery,
nearly equal in number of guns. For
more than an hour we listened to the
roniJ and hanyu commemorative, Of
the whole war; some say it was the
heaviest of which history gives any ac-
count. The explosions followed in such
rapid succession that they became a
continuous roar. 1t was more than
deafening. The air seemed to lose,
under this beating and torture, it's or
E binary capabilities of conveying sound +,
and became stagnant and paralyzed, so
to speak. The events occurring about
, us became a grand pantomine, which
: our eyes could see indeed, but in which
, our sense of hearing took no part. An
, ammunition wagon rumbled heavily
! along the stone-paved pike. A mounted
courier galloped past, the iron of his
horses hoofs striking fire on the pave
,, ment. But to us they were silent pass
? ers. The flash of iron and stone gave
r. no audible SOuuu tnaJ reached our ears.
Our brains were filled with that ter
! rible roar, which we seemed to feel
: rather than hear. A comrade has since
; told me that he stood within twenty
= five yards of battery at that time, but
. did not know when it was fired unless
he was looking at it. AT last, after an
hour or more of this terrible cannonad-
ing, it began to decrease, and in its place
> there came the sound of fresh musketry
firing. Then we knew that another
charge was being made on our lines,
and when the cannonading had almost
ceased there came to us again that sound
4 which had grown familiar the day be-
: fore, That long, fierce, screaming
G yell, nearer than it was yesterday, and
n louder, it seemed The cannonading
r. ceased, the roar of muskets increased
# and finally lessened and died away
o And when the artillery again broke
II forth it was accompanied by cheer after
# cheer, and we knew that the charge was
{, repulsed. 1t was not until long after
e that we learned the full particulars OF
l. this terrible charge, which has passed
IS into history as the turning point Of the
a whole war 1t is the scene which is de-
y picted in the famous cyclorama which
h is being exhibited in some of the large
l. cities.-C' Z. Benton, in Springfield Re
n publican.