Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1892-12-14
THE ENEMY'S DEAD.


of battlefield unless he has assisted
to bury the dead after the field 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 darkess one or the other
army withdrew, leaving all the dead
and most of the wounded to be cared
for by the enemy. The wounded are
brought in by the ambulance corps,
but the dead fall to the lot of the rank
and file to bury.
While 200 or 800 men are busy with
pick and spade excavating the trench
es, the field is divided and subdivided
for those who are to bring in the dead.
If stretchers can be had, so much the
better; if not, the corpses must be
carried in any manner they can be
handled. Our subdivision on this
field is u strip about 80 rods wide and
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 timber. 1t was
here three separate charges were made
and checked. Three times the enemy
formed his columns in the timber and
came rushing upon the slope 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 earth.
works, 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 ter
ribIe thirst and praying for death or
succor. 1t was death which relieved
him, for we had fallen back under
misapprehension of orders to new
line.
The position of the dead on bntlle'
field would be queer study for one
who could forget his humanity for q
time. Here and there one is resting
on his side-here and there one on his
face with arms outstretched-but 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 last dying strug-
gle 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.
tits 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 shoy-
els are ready to cover them in. Here
is a heavy piece of artillery which
belched grape and canister at short
range-over TO the right another.
Before them was a fire of musketry.
There, where the hundreds 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 rs men do in their beds
with friends about them.
On the slope beyond arc 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 Il musket or rails
ed cheer. 1t was death to stand
there-death to 90 forward, dishonor
to retreat. Hundreds and thousands
must be carried to the trenches and
covered in without search for name
without hope for future identification.
In the years to come these gruesome
trenches will be uncovered and the
bones removed to locations where the
widow and the fatherless may come
with their tears of grief and their Of
ferings of flowers. There will be no
identilication-no rearing of head
stones to gallant men. An acre or
two will be set aside, the bones OF
thousands gathered there, and one
fateful word will answer for names and
culogies-Unknown. :,
And there, until Gods trumpet shall
sound to call the living and the deatl,
shall lie their dust, wept over by the
widow and orphhn, remembered by
comrades, honored by their foes.
NJ QUAD.