Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-10-09
WEEPING LITTLE LOU,
A Touching Incident in the Panorama OF
the Great Rebellion.

A Touching Incident in the Panorama Of
the Great Rebellion.
It was in January, 1863 the wind min
gled with rain and sleet, swept mourn
fully through the forest of cedars that
bordcred 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 stern purpose, to
check the expected attack On Qur left.
Not a campfire cheered the dismal sur
roundings, not bugle note or a loud
word of command, for Rosecrars was
quietly massing his forces ON the left
center to NOW down without mercy
the thousands who were soon to Iai;
O sacrifice in the dreadful harvest of
battle.
Long rows of dead, sido by side, lay
alongside the pike for Identification, a
sad commentary of the axiom that the
bullet is no respector of persons and a
mournful illustration of the soldiers I'M
knelled fate. Nor were these all. Alone,
forgotten, with no soft hand to smooth
his war-worn brow, or breat5e a prayer
for his gallant soul, hundreds Of mikes
from the proud, loving circle of his
homo, 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 unburied dead, from
their rain-soddon, muddy-trenches, the
shivering sharpshooters kept up des-
ultory firing that BODIED no good to any
rash enough to expose his person to
their aim. No fires to warm, no rationS,
but dry field corn Men slept wrapped
in wet blankets, in the cold, clinging
clay, while their leaden hearts we're as
gloomy as the leaden skies above,
Of near another pike, and out far from
the scene where the glorious Phil Sheri'
dams division saved from utter ruin the
panic-stricken veterans of that grand
army, stood a 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, scattering the room with
its red work of destruction, it was
scarcely the place to find an old woman
and 2 little girl eight years of age. She
was standing By the house with an Off
Ger. he found her sobbing as if her
heart would break. Her father, like
many others in that region, had fed TO
the Confederate side with his rife as
soon as our army drew near. A 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 60 find her father; that her man.
ma was dead, and papa had mammals
picture with him, and if she did not go
and get 1t 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 little old faded shawl
oOOue AOI wall plHcneu lace, ueE COl0'
stockingless feet in wet, Undiscovered
shoes, fitting from tree to tree through
the dark cedar aisles to the front of the
line, this little CHASTITY spirit sped along
on her mission of love- On past the
trenches, while the spinning bullets
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
ed thoroughfEe. of the most peaceful
spot on earth vas ever child safar and