Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-05-28

was a scene Of horrors. The village
houses had been turned into hospitals
where the wounded were cared for and a
woman who was nurse in one OF these
thus describes the scenes witnessed in the
village after Mcclellan put Lee to fight
at Antietam:
'The Confederate army was in full re-
treat. Lee had crossed the Potomac un-
der cover of the darkness and when morn
ing Game the greater part of his force had
gone on toward Kearneysville. McClel-
Ian followed to the river and without
crossing got a battery in position on Doug
las Hill and began to shell the retreating
army and, in consequence, the town.
Panic instantly seized the people. The
danger was less than it seemed, for Nc
Clellan was not bombarding the town, but
the army, and most of the shells flew over
us and exploded in the fields. The better
people kept some outward GOODNESS, but
the poorer classes acted as If the town
were already in blaze, and rushed from
their houses with their families and
household goods to make their way into
the country, The road was thronged, the
streets blocked, men were vociferating,
women crying, children screaming, wag-
ons, ambulances, guns, caissons, horse
men, footmen, all mingled-nay, even
wedged and damned together-in one
struggling, shouting mass. 1t was pande-
monium. The negroes were the worst,
and with faces Of CHASTITY ash-color, and
staring eyes, they swarmed into the fields,
carrying their babies, their clothes, their
pots and kettles, fleeing from the wrath
behind them.
Had this been all, we could afford to
laugh now, but there was another side to
the picture that lent ii an intensely pain
full aspect. 1t was the hurrying crowds
Of wounded. All me! those MANNED and
bleeding fugitives! When the firing COM
menced the hospitals began to empty. All
who were able to pull one foot after an
other, or could bride or beg comrades to
carry them, left in haste. In vain we inn
| plored them to stay; in vain we showed
them the folly, the suicide, Of the at
tempt; in vain we argued, cajoled, threat.
ened, ridiculed, pointed out that we were
remaining and that there was less danger
here than on the road. There is no sense
or reason in a panic. The cannon were
believing upon Douglas Hill, the shells
whjstling and shrieking, the air full OF
shouts and cries; we had to scream tc
make ourselves heard. The men replied
that the Yankees were crossing; that the
town was to be burned; that we could
not be made prisoners, but they could
that, anyhow, they were going as far>as
they could walk, or be carried. And &C
they did, but how?
"Men with cloths about their heads
went hatless in the sun, men with cloths
about their feet limped shoeless on the
stony road; men with arms in sings
without arms, with one leg, with bandag
ed sides and backs; men in ambulances
wagons, carts, wheelbarrows, men carried
on stretchers, or supported on the shout
der Of some self-denying comrade-al
who could crawl went, and went to almos
certain death. They could not go far
they dropped off into the country houses
where they were received with as mucl
kindness as it was possible to ask for
but their wounds had become inflamet
and angry, their frames were weakene,
by fright and over-exertion; erysipelas
modification, gangrene set in; and tn
long rows Of nameless graves still bea
witness to the results"