The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-09-30
The Ghastliness Of War.

Cyrus G. Shepard of Company F., Six
teenth y. 7. VOL, Cav, who was on the
battlefield Of the Wilderness FIVE days af-
| ter hostilities, says:
During the thirty-three years since. II has
been an open question whether to be GLAD
or sorry that l visited this battlefield II
| could not be more windy impressed upon
me had seen 1t yesterday. It has been
nightmare and horrid day dream all
these years. Often have / prayed that
visions of those upturned faces, biackened
and distorted, Of thes taring. glazed, eye
pals, OF ;be st,ffened, outstretched hands,
seemingly still graxpiag for support, those
r,s:d forms wrapped in blue and gray,
that mad fought their last battle and now
lay side by side n that great charnel-
held, might be blottsd forever from my
recollection. Then, again. have been glad
that L knew so well how that battlefield
appeared. and how barbarous, brutal and
inhuman it made war seem: glad that l
knew how 1000 dead heroes looked, who
had faced and met death amid the Wild
frenzied scenes of one of the greatest bat
ties in the history OF the world.
None of us felt like performing any act
OF ghoulish vandalism; though, as l saw
a letter extending from the pocket of a
u,
and, some of the boys gathering around,
we looked it over. 1t was torn and partly
illegible, but We made out that Il was
from the town OF Hamlet, in the state Of
North Carolina. was in lady's hand
writing, and the portion that we wers
able TO read was as follows:
Ny Dear Jack: We hape that you can
soon return and help US with the tobacco
crop; but if not, we do hope and pray
10 God that our dear Jack will not be
harmed by those terrible Yankees.
As We looked at the letter and then al
the upturned face Of poor Jack, turning
black from exposure 10 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 SOL
Ger at our feet, and of the other ten thou
sand homes from which dear ones had
gone out who were now among that host
o. dead around us, We began TO compre-
mend something OF the brutal. barbarous
nature of war. And, personally, | would
have had keener comprehension still had
l known then what / learned a few DAYS
later, that on that very battlefield, and
not far from the spot where poor Jack Law
my own brother had been killed a few
days before. He was on the diminishing
line, early in the morning of May l. at the
very beginning of the fight. He was struck
in the thigh with Mine bullet, carried
to the rear, his leg hastily amputated, ano
died few days later in hospital
We had ample time to inspect the field
while our ambuiances were visiting the
houses, barns. and nuts 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 10 bury the slain. But this
only added to the horror of the scene, for
portions 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 move
ments, the dead lay as if some one had
measured an accurate line, and then placed
them in order upon it. Then, apparently.
came the worward dash, and here and
there they lay as they had plunged mead
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
had met, then gray and blue lay side by
side or one athwart the other. Some faces
had smile upon them, others had a sur
pr!sed and startled look while others had
q 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
were. we saw broken limbs hanging from
trees where shot and shell had struck,
trees cut down with solid shot or split and |
the ground torn up and plough |
ed as the death messenger sped along,
broken wheels of artillery wagons and am |
balances scattered about; these with the |
dead that lay amid them all. made PIC |
ture SO Internal. so barbarous, and inhu- |
man, that the thirty years that have in |
tervened have utterly failed to diminish |
ts horrors