St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-05
HORRORS OF THE WAR.
Wounded Soldiers Said to Have
Been Burned Alive at Chatta-

Wounded Soldiers Said to Have
Been Burned Alive at Chatta-
nOoga. r.
Stanhope Sans in the Atlanta Jour-
nal: The battle of .Chickamauga was
altogether the most horrible tragedy in
the most tragic strife of modern times.
The real history of that fight cannot
be told in the marble sculpture of some
magnificent memorial of victory. 1t
was written once, and best written, upon
the hearts of thousands who saw the
death struggle, in the shrieks of
wounded men, dying in deserted heaps
between the lines of battle, or perish
ing hopeleSsly and miserably in the
flames kindled by the torch or by fiery
shot. The dead were not those alone
who had been mortally wounded. Want
of surgical attendance, want of water,
and the flames that swept over the
parched field in an onset which no SOL
diers could withstand, Swelled the fatal
list.
AS pictured to me by soldiers who
had fought throughout those two ter
rible days, the scenes must have been
horribly pathetic.
MY regiment was in the first charge
of Ector and Wilson's brigade" said an
old soldier to me. IL fell In the front
line at the farthest point we pushed to
in the assault, and when the brigade
fell back before Baird's charge [ was
left between the lines. Other wounded
soldiers had fallen close to ME, and
could hear their low means between
the Kissing shot. Bullets hurtled above
US and raked the earth about us Oh all
sides. Branches cut from the trees by
shot and shell fell like hailstoneS. Now
the FederaIs would charge over us, to
be driven back by the Confederates;
but always we lay there in the path of
the bullets, and one by one died slowly.
The second day the flames cracking in
ton. though they did not reach me be-
fore the rebel yelP that Sunday even
ing told me that we had won. | was
picked up that evening after lying
wounded two days between the lines"
This would seem to be bad enough,
but it was not the worst. The woods
were as dry as powder, and they were in
some way set on fire during the fight
Sunday. The Widow Glenn's house,
Rosecrans' headquarters, was burned
down. All through the waods that
skirted the right side of Dry Valley
road there had been terrific fighting aud
heavy slaughter. The dead and wound
ed numbered the ground. Through this
corpse-laden grove swept the long line
of fire. 1t leaped from twig to twig,
from leaf to leaf. and from corpse to
corpse. Neither blue nor gray was
spared by this barbarian spOiler. Nor
did the dead only constitute this enor-
nous funeral pyre; the wounded SOL
diers, stricken down by shot, writhed
and groaned amid the flames,
II saw where dying men lay in the
track of the fire." said Confederate
soldier, ''but could do nothing. l was
wedged in the line and on a wild rush
at the enemy. There was only one way
to go-straight ahead. When l came.
back the ground had been swept by the
flames and the wounded had ceased
their grooming.
Son Sunday morning." said the same
soldier, ''as our division was beng hur-
ried forward to support the center, no
ticed little hut in the woods in which
were crowded at least fifty, possibly one,
hundred. wounded men. No surgeon
was with them. They had no water, NO
food, no one to offer them consolation.
They were absolutely alone-awaiting,
death. Late that evening | returned
through the same wood. The flames
had swept away the hut. l know not
how many had persisted. but could see
charred flesh and bones in the ashes" 4
Poor Lytle was dying in Chattanooga,
mortaIly wounded in that CHASTITY fight.
him. THE path to Stygian horrors"
flames of their own funeral pyre.