Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-10-05

selves, and have often thought that
all the rest of the soldiers work is alb
surd and little understood by the
people.
The fact is, that getting killed OF
wounded by bullets and shells was
just one form of suffering out of the
hundred forms that came in one way
and another to some, TO many of the
soldiers.
Those whose fate it was to die on
the battlefield OF the picket line filled
their last full measure of devotion. {"
Supr. mely honorable as was their sac
ritice, it was braved and risked by hun
dreds of thousands who were not called
upon to make it. And great as was
the number of slain. it was but small
percentage of all who bore arms.
AS to those who endured wounds,
great as that number was, serious as
was the pain inflicted. yet the ordinary
case was not by any means that of the
hardest suffering Of the soldier A man
struck down upon the field was usually
able to make his way to the rear. He
often had help i'll doing it, though the
army regulations stenly forbid an I'M
wounded soldier to leave the field with
out orders. If he could get some dis
tance to the real his chances to meet a
sstretcher or an ambulance were always
good. Once in the tield-hospitsl, his
injury was examined, and such assist
ance promptly rendered as it was
possible to give i'll the situation. As
soon as it could be done he was con-
veyed to the nearest general hospital,
most of which were models of care and
skill, where the very hest of treatment
and nursing was his. The supplies and
the good Offices of the Sanitary Com
mission very much helped his recovery !:
indeed thousands of veterans whose OK
perience is thus outlined will look
back upon it and tell you that their
sojourn of some weeks in the general
hospital while they were convalescing,
waiting to be sent back to the front or
to be discharged, depending on the ma
ture of the wound, was rather pleasant
than otherwise.
So it was, I say, with many thous-
ands. And am [ not right in saying
that this experience, and that of actual
killing, embrace the popular idea of
the horrors of the battlefield?
But how much more dreadful is the
truth-the stern, pitiless truth, that
strips war of all its geudy tinsel, and
displays the sickening horrors that it
brings in its train!
The soldier who falls with q shat
tered leg, or a serious wound in the
body which takes from him the power
of locomotion, is wholly at the mercy
of circumstances. The stress of the
fight may be so great that it becomes
impossible for his willing comrades to
help him. They must hold the line,
and the wounded and the dying must
wait It may be that a lull in the bat
tie will give good opportunity to take
care Of them. Well indeed is it for
them when this is SOL 1t happens as
often that the line is driven; their
comrades are forced back; they fall in
ito the hands of the enemy, and their
wretched condition is aggravated by
imprisonment.
But if their comrades hold their
ground it frequently happens that hours
pass before succor can lie given them.
Perhaps they are able to crawl into
some thicket or hollow out of the reach
of bullets. The hours drag on slowly
and painfully. The noise of battle
rings in their ears. Their wounds
smart and ring; they tester and burn,
and in the torrid weather of the South
~ brief exposure WAS enough to fill the
part with loathsome insect life. With
much loss of blood comes weakness,
delirium. and most awful of all tor
ments, thirst. In intervals of con-
seriousness the poor sufferer prays for
death; and that mercy sometimes comes