Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1890-08-30
WEEPING LITTLE LOU.
A Touching Incident In the Panorama of
tho Great Rebellion.
j. c. Macy, in N. E. Maya


the Great Rebellion.
1t was in January, 1868, the wind min
gled with rain and sleet, swept mourn
fully through the forest of cedars that
bordered Stone river. The roads, called
pixies down there, deep-seamed and fur
rowed by the wheels of heavy army
wagons, were soft or sticky with tough
clay and almost impossible, yet artil-
lery was moving to the front, cavalry
and infantry soldiers hurrying forward
silently, but with a stern purpose, to
check the expected attack on our left.
Not campfire cheered the dismal sur
roundings, not bugle note or loud
word of command, for Rosecrans was
quietly massing his forces on the left
center to NOW down without mercy
the thousands who were soon to fall
a sacrifice in the dreadful harvest of
battle.
Long rows of dead, side by side, lay
alongside the pike for identification, n
sad commentary of the axiom that the
bullet is no respector of persons and a
mournful illustration of the soldiers un-
knelled fate. Nor were these all. Alone,
forgotten, with no soft hand to smooth
his war-worn brow, or breathe a prayer
for his gallant soul, hundreds of miles
from the proud, loving circle of his
home, in the dense cedars of that bloody
battlefield lay many soldier dead or
dying for the cause he gave his life to
win-the splendid flag he died to save
from dishonor. Elsewhere, across the
field of the still unhuried dead, from
their rain-soddcn. niuddy-trenches, the
shivering sEpr ooters kept up deS-
ultory tir.r chat BODIED no good to any
rash enough expose his person to
their ali NO lres to warm, no rations,
but dry field corn. Mon slept wrapped
in wet blankets, in the cold, clinging
clay, while their leaden hearts were as
gloomy as the leaden skies above.
OFF near another pike, and ont far from
the scene where the glorious Phil Sheri-
dams division saved from utter ruin the
panic-stricken veterans of that grand
army, stood q small house, used as a
temporary refuge for the wounded,
marred and splintered with bullets and
shell, one cannon ball having plowed
over the floor, spattering the room with
it's red work of destruction, it was
scarcely the place to find an old woman
and little girl eight years of age. She
was standing by the house with an Off
cer He found her sobbing as il her
heart would break. Her father, like
many others in that region, had fled to
the Confederate side with his rifle as
soon as our army drew near. prisoner
had told her that her father lay dead
between our pickets and the enemy, and
indicated to her quite plainly just about
where he fell on the skirmish line. She
was sobbing and pleading to go to him.
In vain the officer warned her she could
not pass the lines-or, If she did, the
danger of being shot, but she cried she
must go find her father; that her NAM
ma was dead. and papa had mamma S
picture with him, and if she did not &c
and get ii some one would steal it. The
officer, deeply affected by the poor little
creatures distress, hurried away from
the spot.
Then might have been seen strange
thing. With q little old faded shawl
about her wan-pinched face, her cold,
stockingless feet in wet, undiscovered
shoes, fitting from tree 80 tree through
the dark cedar aisles to the front of the
line, this little ghastly spirit sped along
on hor mission of love. On past the
trenches, while the spinning bullet:
whirled and sung above her head, she
soon revealed herself to the opposing
| sharpshooters, but was she safe? Safe.
| Not in the halls of wealth, in the guard
I'D thoroughfare of the most peaceful
| spot on earth was ever child safer ant
freer from danger than that poor little
orphan of war, as with anxious look ant
hasty tread she peered about among th'
clay-dishgured faces for the feat
ures of her dead father. Lik'
| the lull before storm the rifle
ceased their wicked crack, and
know that many powder-blackene,
face was streaked with hot and un
checked tear, when at last they saw thi
little maid hasten TO one body and he'll