The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-06-10

The sun was well up in the eastern
sky, yet only q ha,f-light penetrated the
dense North Carolina pine forest,
through which two weary wayfarers
were trudging northward, nearing Pc
tersburg. One Of the twain was a col
ored man, past middle age, but how far
1t would have been hard to say, since,
although his woolly head was well
frosted. and his thick eyebrows white
as snow, there were few wrinkles in his
face, and his frame still seemed vigor-
Gus. His companion was a little white
girl, not more than nine years old,
daintily dressed and exceedingly pref
ty. The deep carpet Of pine needles
upon which they walked swallowed up
the sound Of their footsteps, and as
they went silently for some time, they
might well have seemed to be super
stitious observers, an ill-assorted pair
Of ghosts.
"Wha dat?" suddenly exclaimed the
darkey, in a startled and excited tone,
pausing with one foot held in the air,
as If ready to be set down in the re-
verse direction for instant flight.
"A cannoni" answered the child, and
instantly, as if emphasize the correct
ness of her guess, the combined roars
of number of great guns filed the
air and seemed to set the earth tremb-
ling.
The first shot was doubtless the sig
nal for a general attack but by whom
and upon what the wanderers could not
know. And they could not even tell
with any satisfying certainty the direc-
ton from which those terrifying sounds
came.
'Uuncle Sam" exclaimed the little
girl, they're right in front of usp'
.'Yaas, Missy Eunice, so dey is. We
be 10 be gwine back jes' as fas' as we
n IL 60. nd 11n
wheeled around for a retreat. But the
instant he did so. facing the range of
low hills, previously at his back. their
echoes made the cannonading seem
to come from them. He grew confused
and stood still. "Fo' de lawdp' he eX-
claimed. "Dey done busted out dar,
too. Dey's all aroun' US Amt no
whar' we en- so. Oh Lawd! femme out
dis yer scrape, an 1 nebber mo- mix
up wifi sech foolishness es lang es
lib
"oh, Sam! Can't we hide some
where?"
Laws, missy, I dunno. I'd glib mule
to be fo' hunnerd miles FIN dis place"
His teeth were chattering from fright.
Soon with the thuniers of the heavy
guns which opened the engagement
were mingled explosive sounds of an
other nature-sharper, not so loud, but
more numerous. The voices of field bat
what they were, but his ear was keen
enough to detect the new notes, and
any change was to him fresh cause for
alarm.
y 'clar to sgracior So he exclaimed,
"dey don't seem to Be IL safe place in
all de wide yea'th. 'ceptin' maybe deep
down in de groun, or roostin' mighty
high. no lower dan de Clouds" Then
his hearing and consequently his APP
prehension received a new shock.
another variation in the volume of
terrifying sound. The rattle of rifles
and the yells Of the combatants seemed
to fill in the spaces between the might
er pulsauons made by the roaring can
non in the throbbing air. It would in
iced have been a severe ordeal for even
stronger nerves than either Sam or
Eunice had, 10 thus stand in what the
sense Of hearing gave assurance was
the very centre of a fiercely commended
battlefield, yet see no living creature
in all the forest, far as sight could
range. 1t was as if armies of ghosts
were warning about them in that dim
light, and some such fancy for a mo-
ment inspired in Sam new thrill of
horror. Could they have seen beyond
the low hill and dense forest in their
immediate front, they would have be-
held the battle Of Hatch's Run, fought
on April l, 1865, one of the most i'm