The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-05-01

De SAID II little salt could be had TO
SAVIOR 1t; or when time was given to
scald u handful of meal and graciously
call it mush; cndeavoriug to assuage
the gnawing paugs by chewing the
buds and twigs of trees; foot sore and
wcaried in muscles and aching in
joints; famiahed end fighting Cor one
eternal week did these fragments Of
Lee army exist on hopes deferred; /;
witho It any Of those dramatic acces-
sorics that encourage, cheer aud in
spirc; yet ready at any moment and to
the last minute to obey the bchcsts of
their noble chicftain.
NO RATloNS FOR THE STARVED SOL
Our first poignant disappointment
was experienced at Amelia Court
House, on the second days march,
where we had been assured rations
would be issued. Gen. Leo had or.
dered supplies to be sent from Dan
VILE to this point, but decentralization
had seized the raj road also and the
long train loaded with victuals for the
hungry army had run by and taken
the precious freight to Richmond.
Not ration was to be found and the
revelation was terribly dispiriting.
Added to this depressing misfortune
was the fact that our delay and wait
upon thc commissariat had permitted
time for Shcridans cavalry and Meade's
corps of infantry to get on our line of
retreat to Danviile; so that our iadcd
and furnishing. though undismayed,
columns were forced to head for Farm
vile, aud in that direction the tagging
footsteps Of men and horses wended
their weary way in last effort to
reach the advantageous protection Of
the hllly regions about Lynchburg.
But the highway was obstructed by
exhausted teams that refused farther
to move their loads. These wagons
men set atirc and abandoned, thus
adding obstacles TO our progress.
Thc!c was no rout, no panic at any
time; only an utter exhaustion of the
animal powers in man and beast, and
The lncomotion became necessarily
slow aud painful.
Yet, on many u dropping, soil
stained face, could be read grim de-
still, and the couplet
"For Dixic's land l take my stand,
To live an die for Dixie,
was plainly intagliated. Horses stag
gcred or fell, no longer able to respond
to the ovcrtaxing domand upon their
strength and endurance; men recled
and nodded as they trampcd, or went
down under the supcrhuman strain
upon their weakened physical powers,
and quickly passed to unconsciousness.
and there would be mono with heart to
disturb them. The writer himself
went down moro than onoo from sheer
inability to move the ovcr-wearied
limbs farther, and under the fullest
conviction that his farther retreat was
ended. YeS after brief respite and
summening UP thoughts of home and
loved ones and Yankee prison, and
by dint of will, the stiffened limbs
would tardily respond to effort, though
Strengthening reminded one much of
the cracking made by dried wooden
hoop when undergoing the same pro-
cess. In the earlier hours of one of
those terrible nights, in the swampy
approaches to some stream, the writer
became entirely oblivious to all mum
dane or heavenly environments a. was
ascertaincd, remained in
this slumbrouo Inconsistencies for a
distance of seven miles, awakening on
a bald hill near the road, at sunrise
next morning, but with no knowledge
Of getting there. Added to our other
tribulations, attack and counter attack
and running fights became far too fro-
Quent for comfort and scenes tragic,
pathetic, indicrous and grotesque so
intcrminglcd as might have dismayed,
interested or amused but for the in
evitably dulled sensibilities and i'm.
passive stolidity of our mental condi-
tion. Thus did tho fragmentary por-
tions of the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia still drag its slow length along,
like some gigantic, .writhing, tortured
worm, depleted in size and strength
and divested of its parts until naught
remained but the bones aud sinews;
yet these fragments, whom attacked,
seemed inspired with that samo esprit
de corps that possessed the whole