The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-07-10
WHO COMES HERE?"
"Hait! Who comes here?'

"Friends with the counterslgn."
advance one and give me the coun.
tersign"
1t was the relief going the rounds to
change the pickets, and | was dropped
out at post No Z. We had fought Lee
all day long on the strangest battlefield
of the whole warm the Wilderness.
From 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
woodman's ak.
We had fought from tree to tree, from
thicket to thicket, from glade to glade,
pushing back the gray lines here, baff1ed
and compelled to give ground at other
points. Lees lines barred the way.
Never a man in his whole army whose
musket barrel was not hot that day
Never a man who did not feel that he
was fighting for the life of the Confed-
eracy.
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 them! The dead
outnumbered the bushes. The wounded
walled and cried as never heard them
~ hi in Cr
so somber-so grewsome-so unearthly
| in fighting a foe unseen in the semi
| darkness that the shouting and curslng
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. 1t was curl
ous coincidence of war that Lee was
also moving by the flank, both armies
marching in parallel lines from 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
a log cabin. 1t was 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 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 l heard a person moving in
the thicket across the open strip.
Was it person? Riderless horses had
galloped about that day almost without
number; this might be one which had
found shelter in that thicket.
Rustic! Rustic! Step! Stepr'
1t 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.
Rustic! Rustic!
Kneeling down so as to see under the
darkness, as it were, | suddenly made
out a black object against the dark back
/ Ia =. 1nr11a
is human being. A scout from the en-
emys picket post, only quarter of a
mile away? A wounded man hobbling
about to find succor? One of our Own
scouts returning?
"Who comes here!"
There is a silence of fifteen seconds
and then woman's voice answers:
81 can't find the place! 1t is sodark
can't find the place.!
Az! it was a woman's voice, and II
had sob in it too. A woman there IL
the darkness between the hostile lines
with powder smoke still in the air, with
stray bullets darling through the thick
cts with whizz, as of some great inseci
stirred to angerl
"Who comes here?'
al wish it wasn't so dark! l am 81
tired-so tiredr' 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
we'll by night as in the sunshine of day
II can't find the placer she sobbed. a.
she came to stop within arms length.
Good God, woman! but what ar,
you doing here?' l gasped, almost terri
fed at her presence.
See. seer she replied, holding bun
: die out toward me. lone time | saw {
beautiful spot in the woods, and said tt
myself that if he died would bury hin
there, but can't find it'll can't find itI'
"What is it, woman What have yoI
got thereF"
'.Seei seel Don't be afraid. Hei