The Coconino sun. [volume] (Flagstaff, Ariz.) 1891-1891, 1891-08-01
Browns House.

So much has been written shout the
battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse
Va, May ~, 1864, that its name is
synonymous Of bloody Golgotha,
that is, if we can reconcile contradis-
tinct terms into such an expression.
The writer, who participated in this
struggle, was fortunate enough not
long since to enjoy the company OF a
young man by the name OF Brown,
who hailed from this very section, so
aptly called the Bloody Angle. In
fact, this battle was fought on his
grandfather farm. take the thread
of his narrative, which runs as fol-
lows:
| was lad about IL years old when
this battle was fought; remember
well the Federal troops as they massed
on our farm, and remember distinctly
the roar OF the battle all day long and
way into the night. After the battle
was over / remember Chat was when
Grant was down towards Richmond)
that men came up from Richmond
and searched the field for arms, can
non, etc. They would take an iron
prod, drive it into the loose earth,
and il the touch was soft they knew
that the excavation contained human
bodies. III resistance was made, then
they would dig and unearth rides and
accouterments, and in one or two
cases some cannon were recovered.
Frequentlythe corpses and equipments
would be buried together.
After all the rifles were thought re-
covered, they took axes and chopped
the lead out Of the trees, and took
away wagon loads. He said he
remembered that many cartridge
boxes had the laps cut off close, and
couldn't understand it until told him
that we did that frequently on the
battlefield to get half-soles for our
shoes, our shoes being OF such poor
material that the pixies soon cut them
out As soon as we halted for a day
or two, our cobblers would peg on
rough half-soles TO our shoes; though
rough, they answered for while.
Sometimes you would see three or
four thicknesses Of these soles, and
as soon they became worn or loose
they were trimmed of and another
one took its place.
He told me Of the unbearable
stencil that arose from the battlefield,
and how frightened he was all the
time on account OF the proximity to
SO many dead men. One evening,
late, he was sent out to drive up the
cows, who were belated. As he
walked briskly through the woods,
whistling TO keep his courage up, he
suddenly heard mysterious patter-
ing of tiny feet lightly treadiug be-
hind him. As he stopped to listen
the sound OF pursuit ceased. A FREE
quent repetition of this alarmed
him, and he broke into wild run
down the zizag cattle-trails. Still the
mysterious pattering followed, moved
as he moved, halted when he halted,
then, suddenly, and as the wind in
mornful requiem OF unusual tones
swept through the trees, he could
stand it no longer, but took to his
heels and struck a bee-line for home.
A meandering rivulet lay across his
way, and with a bound he cleared it
and alighted in clump OF bushes on
soft mass that yielded to his impetus,
and in a moment, from head TO foot,
he was wallowing in the ghostly re-
mains Of dead Federal soldier. He
shuddered as he related his dire ex-
perience OF how he rid himself OF the
reeking mass and turned homeward
nearly dead with fright and with the
horrible effluvia; but he had time to
catch GLIMPSE OF fox, which had
been following him. and had COM
pletely worked on his fears. The
varmint was evidently after the de-
composed carcass, and tolhim who I'M
consciously stumbled upon the
CHASTITY find it seemed as II spirit of
some doughty warrior was In aveng-
ing pursuit