Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-03-18
OPENING ThE CAMPAIGN.
How 8 Battle Was Fought Beneath the
 Apple Blossoms.

How . Battle Was Fought Beneath the
 Apple Blossoms.
 It was a spring morning, with tho Ocl- lowest of suns and tho batmieSt of hrcozes, as the drums suddenly beat tho long roll and the cavalry buglcs took up and seo- ondcd the signal. X camp of 10, 900 mon infantry, cavalry and nrtillery-wHs about to break up and move after tho cp- forced idlonrss of winter. There is rush. ing to and fro, th0ro Is packing of knap- sacks and drawing of rations, there is O shout and song and laughter as the word flies about that the enemy is only few miles away, and wo arc going to open the campaign by striking him a hard blow. Yesterday the fruit trees on tho farms about us had faint tinge of pink and white. Today they have como out in full bloom, and it is a slight to soften a sol dier's heart to behold them clothed in robes of peace and purity. Every breath of wind brings the odor of the blossoms to our nostrils, and 1t Is something to take us back homo to the old apple treo growing beside tho we'll curb at tho kitchen door,
 In an hour the cavalry is on the march, and before the last of the infantry has left camp the booming of ficldpicces down tho road signifies the enemy has been found He has taken up position on forest u along its front. At the first gun from him our battery wheeled to tho left, rushed for the high ground covered by farmhouse orchard, and us we unlimbered and began firing long fuse shells diScoY- cred that tho limSs of a grand old apple trss sprUad out Oysr our heads until every man was sheltered How purO and dslj- cate those blossoms lGoksdi How refresh ing tho odor sxhaledl The powder smoke blew back among them, bus they seemed to shake it of, and though our faces were soon beGrimed the odor of those white blossoms was still in our nostrils.
 Like tho soft lazy snowflakss of an April day shS blossoms came floating down among ua. detached from the limbs by th0 conoussion. 1 even brushed them oil tho gun as sighted iG to send q shell with murdsrous intent SomO one said the en- emy was advancing brushed the falling blossoms right and left to enable me to seq Somo one said that one of our mon had been killed just behind me. The bios. soms peltcd my cheek as I turned to look. Well, 1t was over in half an hour, with | less than 100 killed md wounded. We | sponged out our guns limboFed up, and | thGn l turned to tho poor fellow who would never answer roll call again. He had already been buried. Tho ground about us was us white as if snow bad fall on, and ten feet away lay our dead com | radC, Shruudcd in the white apple blos- soms, buried under tho beautiful and del | icato petals which tho crash of war had shaken downI Wasn't 1t n glorious shroud l and a peaceful grave for a warrior? A bullet fired by a sharpshoOter who had l Crept up ravino had entered his heart, and ho had fallen on his back and lay with eyes open wide and the blood walling out of his death wound. And tho blossoms had hidden his eyes with their awful stare. had yelled his faco until we could not see its pallor, had fallen so thiGkly | upon his broad breast that there was no trace of the bullet and its work.
 It was the soft tender bands of nature seeking for the moment to hide the mur- derOus work of war, to soften the hearts of men armed with every device to slay their fellow men. And the soft breeze car ried the smoke away behind the farm house to bo lost over the meadows, and iu its place came again the odor of blossoms and the songs of rcd breasted robins
 Blossoms fell upon the dead as they wert laid in the shallow trenches to sleep for, evermore, and above them the robins called to each other and rsturped to tbeii deserted nests. NJ. QUAD.