The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-03
AN AWFUL BATTLEFIELD
SOME CHASTITY RECOLLECTIONS OF
THE WILDERNESS FIELD.
The Dead Lay for Days Unburied,
Union Men OutnumberinE the
COnfederates Three to One.
,yrus G. Shepard, in New York Post.

Cyrus G. Shepard, in New York Post
II have no time to bury my dead, and can
give you none" was Grants famous reply
to Lee. when, under flag of truce, ces-
sation of hostilities was requested long
enough to bury the dead. Thus one great
and awful feature of the battle of the Will
derness was the unburied dead. that lay for
days and weeks all over that blood-stained
field, one of the most horrible and CHASTITY
sights ever exposed to human vision. Prob
ably no battlefield of the civil war afforded
such an opportunity for inspection as this.
Ordinarily, after fight, burying parties
were detailed, and the long, deep trench, a
common grave, was dug, and the dead were
at least covered; but not so here. Grant
could not stop, and the long stretch Of coun-
try, overrun with Mosby's guerillas, that in
tervened between the Rappanannock river
and the nearest Union lines, prevented aid
from that direction in burying the thou
sands that were slain in the Wilderness and
in the fight at Spottsylvania Courthouse
! sat on my horse looking over the por-
ton of the field where the fierce and dead
ly fighting of May and S, 1864 occurred.
1t was four or five days after the fight,
about the Sth or 10th of May. A small de-
tachment of our regiment had been sent
as an escort to train of ambulances to
gather in the wounded, who were being
temporarily cared for in barns and farm
houses near the battlefield and l thus had
an opportunity to view this historic scene.
during the thirty-three years since it has
peen an open question whether to be glad
or sorry that I visited this battlefield. 1t
could not be more wildly impressed upon
me had l seen it yesterday. 1t has been a
fcrl1f
years. Often have I prayed that visions
OF those upturned faces, blackened and dis
torted. of the staring. glazed eyeballs. of
the stiffened, outstretched hands, seeming
ly stili grasping for support, those rigid
forms wrapped in blue and gray, that had
fought their last battle and now lay side
by side in that great charnel field might
be blotted forever from my recollection
Then, again. / have been glad that / knew
so well how that battlefield appeared, and
how barbarous, brutal and inhuman it made
war seem; glad that | knew how ten thou
sand dead heroes looked. who had faced
and met death amid the wild. frenzied
scenes of one of the greatest battles in the
history of the world.
One of the most striking features to us
that day. and the one most Thoroughly fixed
in our memories, was that all over that bat
tlefield, or at least that part we visited
there lay three boys in blue to one in gray.
It will be remembered that all through the
by a system of earthworks and hastily con-
structed Notifications and abatises. while
the Union troops were compelled to fight
largely in the open. and assail the Confed-
crates in their strongholds From these it
was utterly impossible to disodge the
envy except by the mastery series of flank
Grant.
NEVER CAME BACK.
We saw in one place where the men in
line of battle had taken off their knapsacks
and laid them In a long row, evidently to be
prepared to make a charge upon one of
these earthworks of the rebels, some little
distance in front. These knapsacks re-
manned almost undisturbed, while the men
lay some in heaps, some here and there in
front of the Notifications they had charged
upon AT this point the Union dead lay
thickest. believe 1 could have dismounted
and walked a distance as great as two or
binary city blocks and never once have
stepped upon the ground-walking on dead
bodies all the way. Indeed, had l under
taken the CHASTITY Journey / would have
been compelled in some places to climb over
heaps of the dead
There was slight growth OF underbrush
at this point, with a few trees remaining
made a careful examination and could not
see a limb or a tWtg or bush but was
marked by bullet and some of them IN
several places. The wonder seemed not
that there were so many dead, but that
any liz ed. officers and privates all made
common cause here, and rank was for
ever obliterated for among the dead we
noticed the shining shoulder straps of COM
missioned officers mingled with the ordi-
nary blue uniform Of the common soldier.
The trees were torn and shattered the fear
full work Of shot and shell being shown on
every side. Muskets, canteens, haversacks,
knapsaeks-in fact. nearly all that makes
Up the accoutrements OF the solder-Were
scattered in all directions. Near the road.
evidently smashed by a solid shot was the
broken eaisson of an artillery wagon. while
the gun lay in the ditch, with a dead sol
der lying face downward across ii.
None of us felt like performing any act
of ghoulish vandalism. though, as l saw
letter extending from the pocket of a dead
Confederate soldier. ! dismounted, and.