The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-22

you behold men writhing under their
sufferings of body and distractions oil
mind, and crying out, with frantic We
hemence, to God and man for relief.
But with most of them in vain. The
hot sun beats upon them, or the cold
storm pelts them, and thus they will
lie, bleeding and helpless, until they
die of their wounds or their exposure,
or else of starvation.
And who are these visitors, picking
their way among fallen bodies and
scanning 80 eagerly their features
They are parents searching for their
sons, wives for their husbands, and
friends for friends. Ever and anon a
mournfuI wall announces that some
one has found the object of his search.
Others are thieves and robbers, who
unfeelingly strip the dying of their
property, and only answer their en-
treaties and remonstrances with abuse
or death. Birds of prey hover greedi-
ly about, and like many who swarm
the field in human form, seize indis-
criminately upon the living and the
dead. What a concentration of un-
mitigated woe meets in the compass of
single battlefield! Is there any
scene that so nearly resembles a hell
on earth?
Perhaps we cannot better gain an
idea of its sufferings than by glancing
at those of one individual wounded in
battle, and then multiplying them by
ten, twenty, or fifty thousand. AS an
instance, take the statement of Ser
geant Milton, who was wounded in
the battle of Resaca de Ia Palma.
Speaking of the celebrated charge of
Mays dragons, he says, Sat that mo-
ment ball passed through my horse
on the left side, and shattered my
right leg. The shot killed the horse
instantly, and he fell upon my left
leg, fastening me by his weight to the
earth. There lay, right in the midst
of the action, where carnage was rid
ing riot, and every moment the shot,
from our own and the Mexican guns,
was tearing up the earth around me.
I tried to raise my horse so as to eXtri-
cate my leg, but I had already grown
so weak with my wound that I was
unable, and, from the mere attempt, I
fell back exhausted. To add to my
horror, a horse who was careering
about riderless, within few yards of
me, received wound, and commenc-
ed struggling and rearing with pain.
Two or three times he came near fall
ing on me, but at length, with a
scream of agony and a bound, he fell
dead, his body touching my own fall
en- steed. What 1 had been in mo-
mentary dread of now occurred-my
wounded limb, which was lying across
the horse, received another ball in the
ankle. T now felt disposed to give up /;
and, exhausted through pain and ex-
citement, a film gathered over my
eyes, which I thought was the pre-
cursor of dissolution. The
tide of action now rolled away from
me, and hope again sprung up. &.
While was thus nursing the prospect
of escape, I beheld, not far from me, a
Misunderstanding ranchero, armed
with an American sergeant's short
sword, despatching wounded Amer
lean soldier, whose body he robbed.
The next he came to was a Mexican,
whom he served the same way; and
thus looked on while he murderous-
ly slew four. I drew an undischarged
pistol from my holsters, and laying
myself along my horses neck, watch
ed him, expecting to be the next vic
tim but som ething frightened him
from his vulture-like business, and he
fed in another direction. Two
hours after, I had the pleasure of shak,
ing some of my comrades by the hand,
who were picking up the wounded"