Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1886-04-07

SPOTTSYLVANIA.
Incidents OF the Battle by a
Federal Soldier.
Vivid Pictures of the Horrors of War
Drawn by Spectator,
From an account of the battle of Spott-
sylvania by Harvey S. Wells we copy as
follows:
AS such close quarters SO many mon
were struck in the head, as tho result of
deliberate aim. Although to one in tho
line it did not seem as if many men were
falling about him, but steadily all day
long the firing of the sharpshooters ac-
complishcd its fatal work until the
ground was literally strcwn with the
dead. The weather was warm, tho mcn
got tired Of lying so long in positions of
constraint to their bodies; they wanted
water and chance to stretch their wear
led limbs, and, although knowing it was
almost instant death, they would rise and
run for the rear, sure to be followed by
vollcy of bullets from the rebel sharp
shooters. never during over four years
of active service in the army witnessed so
many individual acts of daring and fool
hardness on the part of soldiers as on
this day.
In the company which commanded,
out of 81 men who entered the fight 10
were killed and wounded, most of them
killed instantly, and half of that number
shot in consequence of acts Of foolhardy
daring, uncallcd for in the requirements
OF faithful duty. At the time attributed
much of this dcvil.may-cOrc spirit to the
whlskcy in the cantccns issued to us the
day before. There was drunken artil-
lely officer, who rode up and down along
our line with gay uniform, mounted on a
spirited horse, swinging his hat and call.
ing on the men to charge, who seemed to
possess a charmed life, for he escaped un-
harmed. The man stopped and talked
with me short time, with the bullets fly
ing all about him, when one of us did not
dare poke up finger for fear of having it
shot off. A cap on a bayonct stuck up
above the brcast-work was sure to be per-
toratcd by Confederate bullets.
When the ammunition of one caisson
had been exhausted dozen men reckless
ly rushed after another between the two
lines and dragged it back with them
amid a perfect hailstorm of lead. Not
less than hundred dead bodies lay
close around that brass piece of artillery
captured from the enemy when night
drew her sable curtain over the sanguina-
ry work of the day.
During the night the enemy abandoned
the salient, and early the next morning
the Union troops could go over the scene
OF the previous days carnage without
fear of molcstation. "Piles of dead" is
often used as figure of speech, but in
the works abandoned by the Confcderatcs
piles of dead literally and without cxag-
geation were lying in the compartments
which have previously mentioned
Two, three and four deep, tanglcd-up
with each other bodies and limbs inter
twincd, actual heaps of dead, their black
and bloated faces upturncd to the sky, in
all manner of positions, and dccomposi-
ton already polluting the atmosphere
with horrible stencil. 1t was such
picture of war, horrcd war; as few pco-
pie even those who make business of
war, are permitted to witness. 1t would
take the pen of Victor Hugo to faith
fully describe such Il scene of death and
carnage, such a hideous and appalling
holocaust of human life. In the woods
Immediately in the rear Of the COnfcdcr-
ate line of carth-works one could see the
fearful effect of the muskctry fire from
the Union line. Swinton, in his history,
says that all the trees within the range of
The mrskctry were killed, 50 blighting in
It's effects was the fire of lcadcn bullets
poured into the forest in the 90 hours the
Union troops were ordered to never cease
firing
On that morning after the battle | saw
two oak trees of vigorous growth, about
1Sinchos in diameter, that had been act
ually Gu. in two, gnawed off four or five
feet from the ground by bullets fired
from the Union line in front the day be-
fore. This may give the reader some
idea of the terrible fire concentrated on
the Confedcrat, line behind their earth
works on that ncvcr-to-bc-forgottcn 18th
of May, 1864, by the troops of the army
of the Potomac. In the fall of 1865
when was still in the army, visited
Washington on official business. As l
entered tho War Department, on each
side of the main entrance, in front and
under a little projecting portico, saw
two stumps of trees, the same that had
witnessed on the battlefield of Spottsyl-
vania. They had been sawed off and
carried to Washington as memcntos of
the bloodicst field of battle which history
records of the late war.
Ruled Ont.
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