The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1888-02-09
A SAD INCIDENT.
How the Innocent Sometimes Eer With the
Guilty.


EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: VIII you please
give me space in your valuable paper to relate
sad incident which occurred Oct IA, 1862,
when we drove the rebels oat of Charlestown,
VIVA.
On the afternoon of the DAY on which our
troops took possession, and after the pickets
had been sent out and the guards posted, myself
and two comrades took stroll through the
town to see it, and to what extent if any, it
had been injured by our cannonade. Nothing
particular attracted our attention till reaching
the western part of the town, near which the
Confederate battery that opened on US had
been posted. Here we saw few houses bear
ing the marks of our fire, such as chImneys
knocked down, holes in walls ETC., and in one
instance the smoldering remains of frame
structure, which evidently had been set on fire
by our missiles. After passing these we came
to group of men and women standing at q
house of respectable appearance, the former
talking in low, subdued tones,-and the latter
weeping almost Historically. This prompted
US to stop. few of our comrades, we heard,
had been here before US but on being told by
the bystanders what had happened they passed
on. Curiosity now melted me to see what all
the trouble was about, and entered the build
ing, followed by my two companions; and,
merciful Heaven, what sight met our eyes!
In the front room, which was long and narrow,
a lady, bowed down with grief and sobbing
piteously, paced the floor from one end of the
apartment to the other. She seemed to be
about 80 years of age, and wore q black dress
black seeming to be the prevailing color of
female dresses at that time in Virginia, Every
few minutes she burst out into fits of weeping,
exelaiming, "0h, my child-my Lille" Not
knowing the cause of the lady's sorrow, in
quired of an old man standing at the door look
ing in what it was. "Oh, said he, her child,
her only child, was killed by ball from that
hatforU that
pointing in that direction. Quite number of
people were in the room at the time, yet not
sound was heard there save the lamentations
of the lady. Being Yankee soldiers ourselves,
we knew we were not welcome visitors, and
probably in dangerous quarters; but we were
not molested. Taking our caps off, we softly
entered the room. At one end of it stood what
seemed to me to be parlor organ, around
which several persons were congregated, look
ing sadly and silently at something on its top
Going quietly forward, / saw q spectacle the
like of which / hope I may never see again.
There lay the lifeless body of sweet little girl
apparently or years of age. Except the
little dead, yet still beautiful, innocent young
face, all the rest of the body was covered with
white sheet, upon which were stains of blood
A young colored woman was cutting the long
brown curls from the child's head, and per-
fectly saturating them with her tears One of
my companions asked her how the child had
been killed, and her reply, with sobs, corr0bor-
ated the old MANS Laying her scissors down,
she gently raised the blood-staned cover from
the little ones body, held it up a minute,
looked at US with sorrowful gaze, and then
gently replaced it. The sight was too much
for me and my companions and we turned
slowly and sadly away.
The child, while looking out of an upper
window at soldiers on the street. had been
struck by a ball or she'll from our battery, tear
ing her left breast and arm away-certainly a
terrible sight to behold, especially in one SO
young But such is war, cruel, cruel war, in
any country.
little farther on, in plot of ground be-
tween two houses, lay the dead body of woman
well up in years, and in front of her waiter,
few slices of bread and some broken china.
Her clothing was partly burned, and near by,
scattered On the grass, were fragments of an
exploded shell, from which we inferred that
the explosion had set her dress on fire. 1t was
now time to return to camp, and on the way
we saw other unpleasant sights.-WILLIAM
MCCARTER, Washington, d. G.