The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1897-09-10

upon his wing at Cold Harbor was
meant to annihilate him. The battle
ground was made up of swamps, cleared
fields, patches of forest. timber covered
hills and old fields grown up to bushes
and briers. Mcclellan had two and
three lines of earthworks here, and here
his guns were planted as thickly as men
could work them. Longstreet and Hill,
attacked here. They knew the strength
of the position; they had counted the
odds. There was no skirmishing, no
waiting. On front three miles long
the Confederates suddenly appeared and
rushed forward to the attack. Had
they numbered five times as many they
would have been beaten back. They
were repulsed again and again by the
fire which seemed to burn them off the
face of the earth, but those who lived
came back again more desperate than
before. Only their leaders knew why
this terrible sacrifice was being offered
up to the god of war. Lee had planned
with Jackson. jackson had left the val
ley by way of Browns gap to fall upon
Mcclellan s flank at Cold Harbor. The
sacrifice in front was to give jackson
time and to mask his movement.
And so Longstreet and Hill advanced
again and again to the sacrifice until
their dead and wounded outnumbered
the living. The afternoon sun was sink
ing lower and lower. By and by it was
only an hour high. Then the roar of
battle along the front suddenly ceased.
Had the remnants of regiments and
brigades become panic stricken at the
awful waste of life and fled from the
field? Had they sullenly refused to obey
orders to advance again? Had Lee
given upeall hope of success and with
drawn from that front2 For five min
utes scarcely musket was discharged.
Then from the heavy forest directly on
the flank of the position Jackson ap-
peared. The flank of an army is its
weak spot. Even if attacked in the rear
it can face about and fight with hope
of success, but if the flank gives way
disaster. follows. Jackson coming was
surprise. His attack was as sudden
as the stroke of bell. 1t dumfounded
and dismayed the Federal flank, but
only for a few minutes. Mcclellan was
not far away. He had fatholned Lees
plans and discovered his true object.
The flank gave back until it had front
of mile long, and then it halted and
battled to save that great army. What
was to be done must be done right there.
Requirements were ordered up, guns
advanced, and for an hour there was
such fighting as war had never witnessed
before.
On the Federal flank were swamp and
forest and tangled thicket. Engineers
had said that the nature of the ground
protected this flank. Wading through
swamps deep with ooze, bursting
through thickets which caught off their
caps and left their jackets in rags, ad
vancing their lines amid the thick
forests, Jackson s men rushed to the at
tack. Time and time again the lines
were repulsed, but fresh troops poured
out of the woods to take the places of
the dead and wounded, and the battle
grew more vindictive and murderous.
There is a key to every battlefield.
There is always a key within a key.
Cold Harbor was the key of this great
field of slaughter. The exposed flank
was the key within the key. Jackson
could count his dead by the thousand.
His entire force was up, and he had
charged and stormed and battered in
vain.
The coming of night does not always
end battle, but as darkness shuts down
tho combatants lose their desperation
and become more wary of each other.
Hunger, thirst and fatigue begin to tell.
AS the fire Of artillery and musketry
sJackens the cries of the wounded are
heard, and those who have escaped un-
hurt begin to estimate the losses. If
Jackson could not break that flank be-
fore night shut down, then his sacrifices
had been in vain. Then the thousands
of dead and wounded belonging to
Longstreet and Hill had simply been
led to slaughter. An order was sent to
General Hood, whose brigade of Texans
gency. Hood placed himself at the head
of his a, 600 men and dashed forward.
They had to traverse swamp and then
cross an open space on which the dead
already lay touching each other. The
Texans had only begun their forward
movement when every piece of artillery
aud every musket on that flank was
turned upon them. With yells of def
ance they rushed forward. The skele-
tons of men struck down in that swamp
were dug out years afterward as burial
/ parties sought for the dead of the war.
Wounded men fell into the pools of
black water or foundered about in the
ooze, but those unhurt used them for
stepping stones.
Nothing could check that rush. Grape
and canister and bullet killed and
wounded 2, 900 men, but the other 2, 900
swept forward, dashed over the earth
works and were driven like a wedge
into the Federal flank. 1t was the eli
max. Beaten but not panic stricken,
the men in blue fell back step by step,
and at length they rested on a new
line. Mcclellan alone knew that he
was beaten. He alone realized what
would result. That great army, only a
portion of which had been driven, must
retreat to new line and new base
of supplies. Jackson 8 coming from the
valley and placing himself on the flank
had imperiled the fate of the nation.
Like the strategist he was. Mcclellan
assumed much, concealed much. While
he brought up fresh troops to hold the
victorious enemy at bay he issued orders
for retreat.
CTo be Continued.)
Warning for Yellow Journalists
Contributors to Sunday journals OF
yellow horrors should take warning
from the fate of M. Henri Martin, Of
Paris. This amiable gentleman was en-
gagged in the preparation of an article
for the Courier de Lyons" of which