San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-04-01
TWO MAY DAYS.
The Day Of Battle and the Day of Peace
Viewed Together.

porals passed through the camp among the
sleeping men and aroused each one with
the news that we were TO move at day
light. The bugles were silent The aroused
men moved about through the gloom like
darker shadows. The brands of the dying
campflres were heaped together and a
hasty breakfast prepared, and as the dawn
Of day came stealing over field and high
way 5000 troopers swung into their sad
dies and went riding down the road
There was mist rising from the earth
which held daylight back and gave fan
tastic look to horse and rider, and the flags
and guidons seemed to have lost their
beauty and power to enthuse
When the long column of fours had filed
out of the field and stretched its length on
the highway, its pace was increased. The
east grew rosy with the reflection of the
coming sun, but the mist interviewed, and
we saw nothing but funeral shadows. BY
and by there was ball of fire showing
dimly through the VEIL and inch by inch,
as it were, the damp gray shadows dis
solved, trees and fences and farm buildings
came into view, and the day was with us.
Pop, pop, popl Crash!'
The head of the column has reached the
At midnight a scout had come in and re-
ported a brigade of cavalry only five miles
away; hence this swift and almost silent
ride. A cheer goes up at sound of the car
bine and the fieldpiec,, the bugles sound,
men and horses snuff at the powder smoke
drifting over the column, and we dash
over the dead and dying and into the camp
on our left. The enemy has been surprised,
but no panic follows. AS we ride through
the camp, slashing and shooting, nothing
checks us, but as we turn to come back
every step Of the way is holly contested,
and the fight is on. The sun has climbed
higher and gained more strength, and the
last traces of the mist have vanished.
Rally" in the call from the bugles of
the old Third "Rallyl Form regimen.
tai 'front.' Forward! Trotl Gallopl
Charged"
"Rallyl" is the call from the bugles of
the old Fourth and Fifth and Sixth. The
general who sits his roam horse on the hill
under the shade tree where the COWS seek
tho shade at MONDAY handles regiments
with word and a wave of his hand. The
Third thunders down over the meadow,
with sabers flashing and troopers cheering
and the teeth of every horse biting at the
steel bit which holds him back. The
Fourth suddenly shoots out like q great
wave racing for the sloping beach; the
Fifth and Sixth dash forward into the
smoke cloud as if it were a race between
them. For a quarter of an hour there are
the vengeful crackle of carbines, the swish
of sabers and the sullen roar of fieldpieces
as the smoke lifts here and there to show
the gunners friend from foe. Then the
crash of battle begins to die away, to re-
treat, to end in few scattering shots afar
down the road. We sit our horses and
wait for the morning breeze to drive the
smoke away 1t is heavy with the signs
of the dying and the groans of the wound
ed. As it Trims away it seems to take on
the pallor and the ghastliness which come
to the faces of the dead.
A tidal wave would not have left the
bodies of men and horses heaped up that
way on the few acres of meadow. They
would have been scattered along for miles,
and there would have been no blood spots
on the green grass, no living men to groan
and curse with the agony of their wounds
A cyclone breaks and bruises and wrecks
and kills, but there are no tiny streams of
red blood to trickle down the slopes to
mingle with the waters of the babbling
brook. Here on the broad meadow, with
its carpet of grass patterned with flowers
and boTdercd with forest trees in full dress
were hundreds who would fight no more
hundreds who would bear new scars as
they fought again. On the ridge to the
right of the creek, singing as it hurried to
empty its waters in the broad river, we
dug long trenches and deposited our dead
On the ridge to the left we dug other
trenches and buried our enemies-enemios
while they lived and opposed us, but enc
mics no longer. The bodies of the horses
were drawn together, fences torn down
and the rails heaped high about them, and
we left the flames to do their work.
Again the 3Oth of May. The clang of
the bells of peace had drowned the horrid
sounds of battle. There was 10 longer
war in the land The dark green forests
concealed no lines of battle waiting to
move out upon the fields bathed in sun
shine. The birds sang from the orchards
as in the days before the boom of artillery
frightened them into faraway flight, and
under the shade trees dotting tho meadows
the mild eyed COWS chewed their cuds and
switched their tails lazily at the buzzing
flies. Hero is the same spot on which l
saw hundreds of dead and wounded. 1t is
the same broad meadow, divided by the
creek which babbles and sings as it bur
ries over the moss grown rocks of its bed
Over there is the tree under which the
general sat his horse and sent his regi
ments laundering down, to the right the
trenches in which we left the dead TO
sleep until a trumpet call from heaven |
should waken them to another life. Tho |
trenches have been opened and the bones |
of the dead reburied miles away on the !
hillside. The grass is again sprinkled |
with flowers, and l look and look and |
find no scar of war and wonder if it was |
not all a dream.
By and by, as the robins sing more |
cheerily and the bluebirds fit closer as
they carry fragments to build their nests, |
l wonder If peace and good will have come |
to other hearts as we'll Adown the road |
from the farmhouse among the pear and |
cherry trees comes farmer, and he whis-
ties as he comes. He does not pass me by |
with a nod He knows that have been
looking over the field wherein men fought |
and died, and he points to the saber scar
on his cheek and grips my hand. He was
there that day as well, fighting and bleed
ing almost in the shadow of the family