The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-07-19
HALT, WHO COMES HERE?
The Funeral on the Battlefield Of a
Baby Victim Of Var.
"Haltl Who comes here9"

ssHaltI Who comes heTeT
Friends with the countersign."
Advance one and give me the coun-
tersignt
It was the relief going the rounds to
change the pickets, and | was dropped
ont at post No. z. We had fought Lee
all day long on the strangest battlefield
Of the whole warm the Wilderness.
Prom right to left flank. from front to
rear, we were hemmed in BY forest and
thicket. There were swamps in which
lizards and serpents lurked, thickets in
which the coy whippoorwill built its
nest, dense spots of forest which seemed
never to have echoed the ring of the
woodlands AK.
We had fought from tree to tree, from
thicket to thiclset, from glade to glade.
pushing back the gray lines here, baflied
aud compelled to give ground at other
points. Lees lines barred the way.
Never a man in his whole army whose
fnuslzet barrel was not hot that day.
Never a man who did not feel that he
was fighting for the life of the Confed-
eracy.
How the forest shook and trembled as
the great guns sent their deadly missiles
crashing through the foliage! How the
thickets blazed up in flames, the severed
limbs crashed down, the sunny glades
turned dark as night with the powder
smoke settling over theml The dead
outnumbered the bushes. The wounded
walled and cried as I never heard them
before or after. There was something
so somber-so grewsome-so unearthly
in fighting foe unseen in the semi
darkness that the shouting and cursine
usually heard IN the lines gave place TO
silence and pale faces
Darkness had come at last, and the
roar of battle had died away to a low
growl Grant had failed to drive Lee.
We knew that from flank to flank If
he could not force a passage through
those gray lines he could flank them.
Before the sun went down we knew that {
he would do it. 1t was not yet night
when the movement began, but my divi-
sion would be one Of the last to move,
and we must hold our ground and pre-
vent the Confederates from discovering
what was taking place. It was Curl
Gus coincidence of war that Lee was
also moving by the flank, both armies
marching in parallel lines from a battle
field which had yielded neither victory
nor defeat to either side.
Post No. was under large tree on
the edge Of thicket. To the south there
was a strip Of open ground, then a
thicket, then an old field, in which stood
log cabin. It was a lonely place, well
away from the camps, the dead and the
dying, but was glad to be alone. All
along the lines there was a growing of
musketry; but this was but a bluff-a
bit of acting to cover the real design. /
had been nearly an hour on the post
without anything happening to alarm
me, when heard a person moving in
the thicket across the open strip.
Was 1t person? Riderless horses had
galloped about that dag almost without
number; this might be one which had
found shelter in that thicket.
Rustlel Rustlei Step Stepl"
It was cautious movement. Who
ever it was hoped to reach me without
discovery, but there were dead leaves
under foot, and the thicket was Dense A
hare could not have moved without be-
traying its presence.
Rustlel Rustic.
Kneeling down so as to see under the
darkness, as it were, / suddenly made
out black object against the dark back
ground 1t is neither horse nor mule; it
is human being. A scout from the en-
eny's picket post, only q quarter of
mile away? A wounded man hobbling
about to find succor? One of our own
scouts returning?
sWho comes here?
There is silence of fifteen seconds,
and then woman's voice answers:
.Ican't find the placei 1t is sodark
can't find the place."
Az. it was q woman's voice, and it
had sob III it too. A woman there in
tho darkness between the hostile lines
witt, powder smoke still in the air, with
stray bullets darling through the thick
cts with a whizz, as of some great insect
stirred to angerl
.sWho comes herc:'
~ wish it wasn't so dark am so
tired-so tiredF' And then she came
across the open strip toward me, max
ing no stop, never hesitating, walking
straight up to me as if she could see as
well by night as in the sunshine of day.
II can't find the placer she sobbed, as
she came to q step within arms length.
Good God, womanl but what are
you doing here?" gasped, almost terri
Hed at her presence.
s'Seel seer she replied, holding bun
J1o o.7t 4au-o,s1 ma ssffna TINA 1 saw a
beautiful spot in the woods, and said to
myself that il he died would bury him
there, but can't find it'll can't find itl'
"What is it, womans What have you
got tnezef7
..SAel see! Don't 30 afraid. Hes