Connecticut western news., 1889-01-16
SUMMARY JUSTICE.
A LEAF FROM A WAR DIARY.

There was vast deal of swearing and growing that morning in the rife pits, for the soldier, like the sailor, will spit forth his grievances in season and out of season. The night before, Grants army, in his bloody fauking duel with Toe, had reached Spottsylvania to find tho same serried walls of Confederate bayonets blocking hi, way. Rstions were scaut. the commissary wagons, milos ia the rear, were stuck fast as bricks in mortar, rain had poured all night and the picket detail went out sourly to tho game of dodging lead without cup of coffee. Gray skies, steaming earth, wet uniforms; an ex- posed line, where every man burrowed a little hole, or threw up heap of earth, or grovelled behind tree stump; a vigilant enemy not two hundred yards away, across wide gully, scratching gravel in similar fashion, and prompt with bullet at sight of blue cloth-it was too dismal for any language but the staccato. Tho rich and varied quality of the blasphomy would have taxed even the disciplined genius of a teamster. By-and-by the sun clam bered out of tho fog banks, and shone with sickly lustre as tho air frightened, but with an intensity of heat that sucked the brain dry. Crampod limbs-for 10 one could venture to make much stir and tho torture of thirst made every man ache with tho curses that Prospero laid on Caliban. We could see the glint of the water iu tho rua, bey ond which deadly tubes lay levelled, as 1t swept on in glaucing nipples or broke in baby cataracts, and the musical inklo of it ravished us with delight that swiftly swung back into sharper pain. But if the mon in gray wore for us the fierce guardians of that fountain of refreshment, we werc the like to them. So we panted and longed and vented our spleen on any futter of uni form that made rock or stumpor mound animate.
 | Idon't remember on which side il began. A white rag was tossed upon the point of bayo In the twink ling of an eye hundred of these jocund signals waved on both sides. Chanti- cleer crowed merrily from scores of throats, and lusty responses from the other side made the alr alive with tho notes of rustic matin chorus. Ole touch of nature had renewed our kin ship, and discipline melted like the frost on window pane. "Come and have driuk'-that genial challenge which punctuates so much of the bu,i- ness of peace was bandied between the friendly enemies, but this time it was for the quaffi'g of vintage more spark ling and delicious than any cham pagne that over beaded in crystal. What were general orders, the starch of military rule, the remonstrances of authority, before this great gush of kindness and sympa- thyi The officers tried to keep tho men in their limos, but the impulse ha l got such head that it beat down opposi. tion, which was the moro feebl, as the sword secretly thrilled with the same sentiment that stirred the bay yonet. A thousand men along a half-mile front sprang out of ambush and etched their legs. Rifles were stacked, and with unslung canteens the whilom foes, who had been hot for each other blood, hastened to meet on tho bank: of the run and grip honest brown paws.
 'How dye, Yank" "How dye, Johnny7" went the scattered fusillade of greeting, and all gave tongue to { hubbub of chatter and laughter like that of pack of schoolboys just broke loose from the threat of birch. What !. draught of paradise that water was as we drank till every man was fit te burst his skinl How beautiful the shin- ing of it as it danced over the shadows or lay in the still pools glassing messy pebbles in the cle ar cool dopthsl How every hoart glowei with good will tha smoothed the "wrinkled front of war into smiles, aud made the vision O reeking sham bles and savage on slaught from which we had emerged and int . which we must soon again pass, like
 distempered dream! How the blue ant gray chaffed in simple, homely fashion
 or interchanged sheepish confidence about the girls they had left bchine
 them!
 The scenes of this idyl set in tn
 midst of great tragedy were so full 0 a rude pathos that, though now nearl ]. . quarter of century gone, they are a
 fresh e . thing of yesterday. cal ] still pass from group to group and hea