Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-11

AA1AAsa w liz S0LuCo AOAOt
Friends with the countersign."
advance one and give me the com-
teEzignI'
It was the relief going the rounds to
change the pickets, and I was dropped
ont at post No. Z. We had fought Lee
AL 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
ixards 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 AZ.
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 q man who did not feel that he
was fighting for the life Of the Confed-
eracy.
How the forest shook and trembled as
tho great guns sent their deadly missiles
crashing through the foliagel How the
thickets blazed up in flames, the severed
limbs crashed down, the sunny glades
TUNED dark as night with the powder
smoke settling over them! The dead
outnumbered the bushes. The wounded
walled and cried as never heard them
before or after. There was something
30 somber-so grewsome-so unearthly
in fighting foe unseen in the semi
darkness that the shouting and cursing
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 q 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. It 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. 2 was under large tree on
the edge of a thicket. To the south there
was a strip of open ground, then a
thicket, then an old field, in which stood
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 growing of
nuskstry; 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 person moving in
tho 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.
Rustlei Rnstlei Step! Step"
It was q cautious movement. Who
ever it was hoped to reach me without
discovery, but there were dead leaves
underfoot, and the thicket was dense. A
hare could not have moved without be-
traying its presence.
Rustlei hustle!
Kneeling down so as to see under the
darkness, as it were, suddenly made
out black object against the dark back
sev ,asfhav- Ia. ~
is human being. Ascout from the en-
emy's 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 silence of fifteen seconds.
and then a woman's voice answers:
"Ican't find the placei 1t is sodark
can't find the placer
Ayi it was a woman's voice, and il
had q sob in it too. A woman there in
the darkness between the hostile lines
with powder smoke still in the air, with
stray bullets darting through the thick
cts with whizz, as of some great insect
stirred to angerl
"Who comes herer
ri wish it wasn't so,dark! / am SC
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
wen by night as in the sunshine of day.
II can't find the placei" she sobbed, as
she came to stop within arms length.
ssGood God, womanl but what are
you doing here" I gasped, almost terri.
fed at her presence
''Seei seer she replied, holding bun
die out toward me. ''One time saw q
beautiful spot in the woods, and said to
myseM that If he died l would bury him
there, but can't find i'll can't find itP
"What is it, woman? What have you
got there@
"Seel seei Don't be afraid. Hes
dead. He can't speak or move. Take
hint"
She put bundle into my'arms, and !
cried out and let fall my musket. 1t
was the body of baby about year and
. half old. Dead7 Yesl Dead from a
cruel bullet which had pierced its little
body and left q great wound which
looked horrible to me in thes dim light
Dead and cold and bathed II its own