The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-05-22
This Il War


We had been fighting on the edge of
the woods. Every cartridge box had been
emptied, and one-fourth OF the brigade
had melted away In dead, wounded and
missing. We knew that we were being
driven foot by foot, and that when We
broke once more the line would go. to
pieces and the enemy pour through the
ed highway gailops battery The held
renee Is scattered, the ammunition chests
open, and along our line runs the order,
'GlVe them one more volley and fall back
10 support the guns" We have scarcely
obeyea when boom boom opens the bat
tery ana Jets OF IRE jump down and seorch
the green trees under which We
fought The shattered old brigade has a
chance TO breathe for the first time In
three hours as we form a line and lie
down. What grim, cool fellows those
cannoneers aroi~ Every man is perfect
machine. Bullets splash dust IN their
faces, but they donot vince. Bullets sing
There goes one to the earth, shot through
the head as he sponged his gun. That ma
chinery loses just one beat, misses just
one cog In the wheel. and then works
again as before. Every gun is using fuse
shells. The ground shakes and tremh hles,
I he roar shuts out all sounds from line
three miies long, and shells go shrieking
NOV great gaps In the bushes, TO hunt
out. and shatter and mangle men until
their corpses cannot be recognized as
human. You would think tornado was
bowling through the forest, followed by
biilo ws'of lire and yet men live through
it-aye, pres forward to capture the bat
terry. We can hear their shouts as they
form for the rush. Now the shells are
changed for grape and canister, and guns
are tlred so fast that all reports blend
into one mighty roar. The shrek OF n
shell is the -wickedest sound in war; but
nothing makes the flesh crawl like the
demoniacal singing, purring, whistling
grape shot, and the serpent-like hiss OF
canister. Mems legs and heads are torn
from their bodies. A round shot or she'll
takes two men out OF the ranks as II
crushes through. Grape and canister NOW
swath and pile the dead on top of each
other. Through the smoke we see q swarm
of men. 1t is not a battle line, but mob
OF men desperate enough to bathe their
bayonets in flame OF the guns. The guns
leap from the ground almost as they are
depressed on the foe, and shrieks and
screams and shouts are blended into one
awful and steady cry. Tweuty men out
of the battery are down, and the firing Is
interrupted. The foe accept it as sign
of wavering and come rushing on. They
are not ten feet away when the guns give
them last snot. That discharge picks
living men off.their feet and throws them
into the swamp, q blackened, bloody
mass. Up, now, as the enemy are among
the gunsl There is silence for ten Sec
onds, and then the fash and roar of 5000
muskets and we rush forward with bayon-
cts. For what? Neither on the right
nor the left, nor in front of US is living
foe. There are corpses around us which
have been struck by three, four and even
six bullets, and nowhere on this acre of
ground Is wounded man. The wheels
OF the guns cannot move until the block
ade of dead Is removed. Men cannot
pass from caisson to gun without
passing over winrows of dead. Every
gun and wheel Is smeared with blood !;
every foot Of grass has horrible stain.
History writes of the glory Of war. Burial
parties saw murder where historiang see
gleFy.-New York American.