The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-03

some of the boys gathering around, we
looked 1t over. 1t was torn and partly
1legihle, but we made out that it was from
the town of Hamlet, in the State of North
Carolina. 1t was in a ladys handwriting.
and the portion that we were able to read
was as follows:
MY Dear Jack-We hope that you can
soon return and help us with the tobacco
crop; but if not, we do hope and pray to
God that our dear Jack will not be harmed
by those terrible Yankees
MANY HOMES DESOLATE.
AS we looked at the letter and then at the
upturned face Of poor Jack, turning 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 mangled soldier at our feet
and of the other ten thousand 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. And per-
Sonally, l would have had a keener com
prehension still had known then what
learned a few days later, that on that very
Dattleneld, and not far from the spot where
poor Jack lay, my own brother had been
Killed few days before. He was on the
Sklrm1Sh1ng line early in the morning of
May 4, at the very beginning of the fight.
he was struck in the thigh with q mimic
bullet, carried to the rear, his leg hastily
in hospital.
while our ambulances were visiting the
houses, barns and huts to which the
wounded had been carried, or to which
they had been able to walk or crawl. In
some few places an apparent effort had
been made to bury the slain. But this only
added to the horror of the scene, for por-
tons of the bodies were exposed
We could trace the movements of the
Union line by the appearance of the field.
In space where evidently the line of bat
tie had been before the forward movements
the dead lay as if some one had measured
an accurate line, and then placed them in
order upon it. Then, apparently, came the
forward dash, and here and there thew Law
as they had plunged head foremost in the
rush for the rebel lines.
So far all were clad in blue but where
the clash had come and the opposing lines
mad met then gray and blue lay side by
side or one athwart the other. Some faces
had smile upon them, others had a sur
prised and startled look, while others ex-
pressed agony ana despair, and still others
had look of hate and defiance as if they
could not and would not forgive the foe
they had fought to the very death. Look
ing over the portion of the field where we
We're, We saw broken limbs hanging from
trees where shot and shell had struck, trees
cut down with solid shot or split and shat
tered, the ground torn up and ploughed as
the death messenger sped along broken
wheels of artillery wagons and ambulances
lay amid them all, made a picture so in
fernal, so barbarous and inhuman that the
thirty years that have interviewed have ut
terly failed to diminish its horrors.
We loaded every ambulance we had with
the wounded and dying, and started on the
long march towards Alexandria, Va. where
the nearest help and hospital service could
be secured. In fording the RappahannOck
river at the United States ford, one ambu-
lance was driven into deep water and two
poor fellows were drowned 1t was SAD
ending to, their brief dream of help and
home, and one of the ten thousand cruel
bitter scenes of that cruel and hitter war