Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-11
A GRAND pRAYER-MEET1Ne
An incident of One of the Fiercest Con-
Aicts of Modern Times.
Correspondence Leaf-Chronicle.l

y
burg-the day Archer's and Pickett's
men rushed ito the jaws of death
like the Tenth legion at Balaklava.
The matrhless genius and skill of
Lee and Jackson triumphed at Chan
cellorsville Then Lee made bold
dash for the enemy's country; at
Gettysburg he met the army he had
defeated at Charlottesville, but
eatly augmented. Lincoln had
displaced Hooker and put Meade, an
untried man, in command. Lee was
confident of victory.
With ''lion fury and lion strength"
FIR two days and nights Lee hurled
his legions against Meade's fortified
position without dislodging him. On
the third day Of the battle Lee mar
Shalled his forces for supreme effort
for conflitt the most ear;ul and
sanguinary since the invention of
gun powder.
When everything was in ready
ness for the bloody drama soon to
begin, word passed along the line
that some of the men had beCn or
dered to engage in prayer.
Col. J. M. Lockert, who led the
Fourteenth Tennessee regiment in
the terrific charge of Cemetery Hill,
knew by certain signal when the
battle was to begin, and therefore
had time to investigate.
Going a short distance he took pc
sitiun on an eminence from which he
could survey the field. 1t was Pick
ett's men-the men who rushed into
the jaws Of death in the immortal
charge on Cemetery Hill-who had
been ordered to ray, and then on
Bonded knees with bowed heads
were earnestly invoking the GOD Of
battles to crown this, their supreme
effort, with success.
1t was a fearful sight to behold,
and all who witnessed it say it made
an impression that will last to their
dying day. TO Use Col. Lockert's
own words:
81 have in time past listened to the
utterance Of prayer that possibly
came only from the lips, and possibly
was for the most part intende1 to be
heard only by human ears; tut | am
sure those at Gettysburg came from
earnest and sincere hearts and were
intended to be heard and answered
only by the Giver of every good and
perit ct gift. And the amen--so warm,
so deep, yelling up from hearts that
were all supplication. | have been
prest MT when prayer meetings seemed
disturbed only ky gentle whisper
ings, but this meeting was held amid
the booming Of cannon, the bursting
Of shells, the blowing up of caissons,
the shrieks and cri Of the wounded
and dying"
Suddenly the earth trembled as if
in the throcs Of an earth quake-the
shocks from 800 cannons that opened
their mouth and belched forth show
ers Of lead and steel. That was the
signal for a grand onslaught; and
then ensued the b!OOdiest conflict in
the history, not Of cur nation alone,
but Of mankind. The student OF
history knows the result. 1t is too
dark picture for true Southerner
to draw therefore / will throw
veil over it.
Suffice it to say that when the inn
mortal lie saw that the day was
lost and withdrew his shattered and
bloodstained legion, from that field
of blood and carnage, he left nearly
all the heroic men who prayed so
earnestly and frequently in the cold
embrace of death. But few escaped;
they had prayed in vain.
When at last night drew her dark
mantle over this bloody and fatal
field, the elements, az if to initiate
man, began warning. The terrific
cannonading had charged the air
with electricity to very high inten-
sity, which produced an electrical
storm.
Dark clouds gathered DER the bat
tletield terrific bursts of thunder
shook the earth; vivid flashes Of
lightning shot athwart the sky, and
by fits and flashes lit up the ensan
guncd field below; the cloud
opened and the rain fell in torrents,
chilling the wounded and dying and
mingling with the blood of the slain |
That WAS the bloody field of Get |
tysburg.a conflict that set forever
the seal of doom on the fate Of the
: uih.
Sic transit g'0ria mundi.
Port Royal, Tenn. w. l.. p.
They are nothing in HOpkinsVille /
il rot peculiar. We nave it on good |
authority that the latest fad there
among the best society is n "ShOp |