Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1892-12-22
The Enemy's Dead.

| One knows but little of the horrors of
a battlefield unless he has assisted to
bury the dead after the has been cleared
of the living. Night put an end to
nearly every great battle fought during
the last war, and under cover of the
darkness one or the other army with
drew, leaving all of the dead and most
of the wounded to be cared for by the
enemy. The wounded brought in by
the ambulance corps, but the dead fall
to the rank and file to bury.
While 200 OF 800 men are busy with
pick and spade excavating hetrenches,
the field is divided and subdivided for
those who are to bring in the dead. If
stretchers can be had so much the bet
ter; if not, the corpses must be carried
in any manner they can be handled.
Our subdivision on this field is strip
| about 30 rods wide and a half mile
long, extending from the earthwork on
| the crest of the hill down bare slope
for 200 feet, then into the bushes, over
small creek and back into heavy tim
ber. TWAS here three separate charges
were made and checked. Three times
the enemy formed his columns in the
timber and came rushing upon the
slopes with bayonets fixed, and three
times the smoke lifted to show only
here and there dazed and bewildered
man left on his feet.
Our dead are all inside the earthwork,
and are the first to be picked up. Most
of them were struck in the head or
breast and died quickly. Here and there
one lived on through half the night,
feebly calling out in his terrible thirst
and praying for death or succor. 1t
was death which relieved him, for we
had fallen back under q misapprehen-
sion of orders to a new line.
The position of the dead on the bat
tlefie,d would be queer study for one
who could forget his humanity for a
time. Here and there one is resting on
his side-here and there one on his face
with arms outstretched-bu the great
majority are lying on their backs.
They did not fall that way when struck
down. Some pitched forward; some
sank down in their tracks; some spun
around like tops and were flung 10 feet
away. In their dying struggle they
have turned over on their backs, and
in 10 cases out of 20 their eyes are wide
open or half closed, as if watching the
stars of night when the film of death
crept over them.
1t is useless to try to count the dead
on the slope. No one will know the
number until they have been counted
in the trenches, as the men with SHOW
els are ready to cover them in. Here
is heavy piece of artillery which
belched grape and canister at short
range-over to the right another. Be-
fore chem was a fire of musketry.
There, where the hundred of blood
spots have merged into one horrible
| great blotch on the dry, short grass
are the dead from the terrible missiles
! of the artillery. The bodies are dis
membered, beheaded, cut in twain
human bodies no longer. Between the
two great swaths moved by the guns
are the dead from the bullets. They
have been struck in the forehead, in
the eyes, in the mouth, in the throat,
in the lungs and heart and abdomen.
Some of'the pale faces wear looks of
pain and terror-others have died as
peacefully as men do in their beds with
friends about them.
On the slope beyond are more dead.
AS they came out of the heavy forest
and over the ridge they found the air
alive with missiles of death. The ranks
had to be reformed here. Scores Of
men sank down and died before they
had fired a musket or raised a cheer.
1t was death to stand there-death to
go forward, dishonor to retreat. Hun
dreds and thousands must be carried to
| the trenches and covered in without
search for without hope of sure
identification. In the years to come
these grewsome trenches will be uncov-
cred and the bones removed to loca-
tions where the widow and the father
less may come with their tears of grief
and their offerings of flowers. There
will be no identifcation-no rearing of
headstones to gallant men. An acre or
! two will be set aside, the bones of thou
sands gathered there, and one fateful
word will answer for names and eu-
logies-Unknown
And there, until Gods trumpet shall
sound to call the living and the dead,
shall lie their dust, wept over by the
widow and orphan, remembered by
comrades, honored by their foes.
NJ. QUAD.