The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-11-17
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
In the Wilderness.

hbNO hO ti"O w my htdu
and can give you none," was Grants
famous reply TO Lee, when, under O
| flag of truce, a cessation of hostilities
was requested long enough to bury the
dead. Thus one great and awful fea-
ture of the Battle of the Wilderness
was the unburied dead, that lay for
days and weeks all over that blood
stained field, one of the most horrible
and ghastly sights ever exposed to hui
an vision. Probably no battlefield of
the civil war afforded such an opportu.
nifty for inspection as this.
Ordinarily, after fight, burying par
ties were detailed, and the long, deep
trench, common grave, was dug, and
the dead were at least covered; but not
80 here. Grant could not stop, and the
long stretch of country, overrun with
Mosby's guerrillas, that interviewed be-
tween the Rappahannock river and the
nearest Union lines pre- vented aid from
that direction in burying the thousands
that were slain in the Wilderness and
in the fight at Spottsylvania Court
House.
sat on my horse looking over the
portion of the field where the fierce
and deadly fighting of May and 5,
1864, occurred. 1t was four or five
days after the fight, about the 9th or
10th of May. A small detachment of
our regiment had been sent as an es-
cort to a train of ambulances to gather
in the wounded who were being tenn
porarily cared for in barns and farm
houses near the battlefield, and thus
had an opportunity to view this historic
scene.
During the years since it has been an
open question whether TO be glad or
sorry that visited that battlefield. 1t
could not be more wildly impressed
upon me had / seen it yesterday. 1t
has been a nightmare and horrid day
dream all these years. Often have l
prayed that visions of those upturned
faces, blackened and distorted, of the
staring, glazed eyeballs, of the stffened,
outstretched hands, seemingly still
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 rec
objection. Then, again, l have been
glad that knew 30 well how that bat
tlefeld appeared, and how barbarous,
brutal and inhuman 1t made war seem;
glad that 1 knew how 10000 dead he
roes looked, who had faced and met
death amid the wild, frenzed scenes of
one of the greatest battles in the his
tory of the world.
One of the most striking features to
us that day and the one most thor
oughly fixed in our memories was that
all over that battlefield, or at least that
past we visited, there lay three boys in
blue to one in gray. 1t will be remem
bered that all through the Wilderness
fight the rebels were protected 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
Confederates in their strongholds. From
these it was utterly impossible to dis
lodge the enemy except by the master
ly series of flank movements so sue
cessfully planned by General Grant.
At this point the Union dead lay
thickest. 1 believe l could have dis
mounted and walked distance as
great as two ordinary city blocks and
never once have stepped upon the
ground-walking on dead bodies all
the way. Indeed had undertaken the
CHASTITY journey l would have been
compelled in some places to climb over
heaps of the dead.
There was slight growth of under
brush at this point, with few trees re-
naming. l mace careful examina-
ton and could not see limb or twig
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 lived. OFF,
GERS and privates all made common
cause here and rank was forever OBJ
liberated, for among the dead we no.
ticed the shining shoulder straps Of
commissioned officers mingled with
the ordinary blue uniform of the COM
mon soldier. The trees were torn and
shattered, the fearful work of shot and
shell being shown on every side. Mus
kets, canteens, haversacks, knapsacks
in fact, nearly all that makes up the
accoutrements of the soldier - were
scattered in all directions.
None of us felt like performing any
act of ghoulish vandalism; though, as J.
saw letter extending from the pocket
of dead Confederate soldier, dis
IuOuhtCQ3 anu cOhO VI thO DOJp Buth-
ering around, we looked it over. 1t
was torn and partly illegible, but we
made out that it was from the town of
Hamlet, in the state of North Carolina.
1t was in lady's handwriting, and the
portion that we were able to read was
as follows:
MY DEAR JAoK-We hope that you can
soon return and help us with the tobacco
crop, but il not we do hope and pray to God
that our dear Jack will not be harmed by
those terrible Yankees.
AS we looked at the letter and then
at the upturned face of poor Jack, turn
ing black from exposure to the sun,
and then thought of that poor wife or
mother or sister who was waiting and
watching for the return of the dead and
manged soldier at our feet, and of the
other 10000 homes from which dear
ones had gone out who were now
among that host of dead around us, we
began to comprehend something of the
brutal, barbarous nature of war.-Cyrus