Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-13

:ant cheer comes floating over the wheat
1elds. Some commander has been address
ing his troops. Five minutes later there is
a popl pop! popl all along the skirmish
line The enemy is moving forward in
battle line. The skirmishers are the pnats
singing the elephant. They kill and
| wound, but of what result is the death or
disabling of fifty men out of division?
Now the field pieces open one after an
other. They are to the right on the hills,
but you feel the earth trembling where YOU
stand, and the crackle of musketry is alb
sorbed in the roar of the rifled guns. You
are pale faced; your chin quivers; your
legs are strangely weak. You shout with
relief as the enemy suddenly appears on
the slope and you get the command to fire
The coming of night may end battle
| which has ragged along a front of ten miles
from early morn. The enemy may have
been beaten and drawn off We may have
been driven. If the going down of the sun
and the coming of night has left victory
undecided, there is a gradual dying away
of the roar of the larger guns. The spite
full and Q Founders keep to their work
! for half an hour longer. Then you hear
only the boom of single gun, and the fire
OF muskets, which has been a continuous
roar for long hours, slackens off and dies
| out until there is only sullen sputter as
| from the wick of a candle touched with
water. The night will not be entirely
! quiet. Here and there the pickets will
fire into the darkness at intervals, and
! guns and troops will be moved to new po-
sitions.
But it is only after the batt'e-aG:er both
armies have abandoned the ield-:hat you
! realize the horror OF q struggle where 1000
men have been engaged. From ight to left
! flank is distance of, say. nine miles. Both
| TANKS We're held by cavalry. The line ran
through meadows, over flower fields across
woodlands and through the orchards sur
rounding farmhouses. Everywhere along
this front are dead and wounded men,
dead and wounded horses, dismounted
! guns, sabers, swords, muskets and ac-
GOVERNMENTS. Here in this hazel thicket
a dozen mOrtally wounded men crawled
away to die. Under the wild plum tree
! shading the waters of the brook are a score
| of wounded men, some of whom left trails
of blood as they drew themselves along
inch by inch to reach the water for which
they thirsted as never before. There are
dead men among the ripening wheat, on
! the sterile hiilsides, in the clover over
which the honey bees are lowering, among
the red and white hollyhocks of the farm
! er's garden
The field is left to the hospital corps and
| the brigade detailed for burial duty Field
hospitals are erected here and there, and
the wounded are gathered in. Blood drips
| from their wounds as they are carried
along-blood on the grass, on the rocks
and leaves and bushes-blood until you
! turn your eyes to the blue sky to forget its
] ;,l
to be dead; others groan in agony; others
still cry ont and curse at the Samaritans
of the battlefield.
And of the dead? Right here where
| they lie in winrows, some across each other
a brigade tried to drive itself into our cen
! ter wedge, and was almost wiped out
! of existence by grapeshOt, canister and
! bullet. Farther to the left we find them
! only at intervals and not so near our lines.
! Over the hill and on each side of the dusty
! highway we come upon them by scores
again. Here we had battery. and half
! brigade charged out of the woods to take
/ it. Standing here you can see dead men
! dotting the ground to the very edge of the
/ forest. The guns We're turned upon them
| as soon as they appeared, and the fire was
! murderous. Here is where they were
checked and shattered and driven back by
:
I the guns. If there We're any wOunled
among the dead they have crawlcd away
! And here, just in the edge of the orchard
, the earth is almost hidden by the dead and
wounded. Men have carried water from
| the cool, deep well to the woundcd-tAe
! dead await burial alone. Here was q Iaad
! to-hand fight over two ficidpieccs. We're
, they worth 200 lives? And as the guns
! limbered up and dashed off 10 Il new 20
stion the iron shod feet of the excited
| horses were planted on the faces Of dead
men-on the breasts of men crying ont
, with their wounds-and the heavy wheels
/ followed after to grind human flesh into
, earth.
/ And now the long and shallow trenches
! have been dug on the hillside overlooked
! by peach trees, and we gather up the dead
, on the section assigned to us and place
, them side by side. There is only a brief
search after identity-never a eulogy or
| prayer over one. Friends in these trenches,
/ foes in those over there. So let them be
| covered into sleep until the last trumpet
| calls. Known or unknown, what matters
, it to them? NJ QUAD
| Good EVENING" Have you used-Ahl
| there is no need of my saying anything
further, am sure you will hereafter use