The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-06-05

| oO', iiSt 'SuJ"Hiiu, bCi OdOJ IVY
whose place none other Of her numcr-
GUS family could ever ell? Tho mes
sage next, perhaps, was carried to an
aged widow, az she sat with dreamy
brow beside her lonely hearth, think
ing of her gallant soldier boy-in fan
cy, sees him rear aloft the dropping
Lanncr, snatched from Il fallen com
radc $ hand, and hears kim as with
batcd breath and flashing eyes he cries:
Come OF! Come on! They fly they
ny!' She follows, she secs him halt;
with "ictory crowned tlrn back, just
as the kindly friends and pastor, with
fearful eyes and solemn face, come in.
She reads it all before they speak.
With pallid check and glaring eyes she
stretches forth her withercd hands
and shricks: 80, God! o, God, they
have MT slain my boy Alas. proud,
doting mother. 1t is even so. Your
only 10y and pride the hope Of your
old agc--is gone. The intrepid, dash-
ing youth, his colonci said, was to
have been promoted for his brave and
gallant bearing On tina: sc!!saimc
mountain side Alas! "thc paths Of
glory lead but to the grave
YOUNG wIfEs pITEous GRIEF.
While still the recollection of this
widow piteous means arc saddening
all our hearts. the "bugle blast to bat
tic calls again." again long days of
torturing suspense pass slowly by.
Then comos the messenger! This
time for yonder young and beautcous
wife. Friends already crushed with
blooding hearts come in to comfort her.
mo, no." the loud, heart-searohing
scream replies, my loss is greater
than all, for see these little ones" She
points to children mute, who tremble
to behold their mothers grief, more
appalled, and dazed by her loud, fran
tic tones and gestures, as she clasps
the rudely wakcncd newborn babe to
her wild throbbing breast, than by
proper understanding Of their great
loss, and hers so plainly told in the
cold rigid limbs extended there with
blood still oozing from the ghastly
While tho realization of such .cala-
mitous sorrow was daily experienced
by many Southern women, others Ian
guished and pinod through long
and torturous days of unending sus-
pensc, after seeing on the dreaded
''iist' the ono word missing oppo-
site the name dearest of all to loving
mothers and sisters. At first, still
full Of hope, they listened eagerly for
a message or word Of cheer from tho
comrades who stood next to him in the
ranks.
One wrote: ~ am sure he lives.
saw him shot, but I cannot think his
wound was mortal. Don't give up, we
will hear from him yet in the encmy's
hospital-pcrhaps in prison"
Another comradc wrote: 81 dare not
raise false hopes; I think he must bo
dead. saw him reel and fall and
throw his hand up to his sido just as
he fell, and after that was seen by
some one crawling off behind a tree.
Had not our dead fellcn in the enc
my hands We might have found his
body
Another wouaded soldier soon after
that came nome and told just how he
saw him lying near fence, but could
not tell if he were dead, because his
hat was on his face. And so conflict
ing tidings multiplied, while the sor
rowing mother aud sisters struggled
on-one day hoping against hope, the
next in very abandonment of despair,
anxious to hear anything, the
very worst positively, rather than live
on with this undying monster of sus-
pensc forever colled about their ach-
ing hearts. Then again there were
others assured Of their loss, denied
the poor privilege of seeing or burying
their dead, knowing only that they
filled honorcd graves hcaped up by
loving hands in the far off
BLOOD STAINED BOSOM OF VIRGINIA.
Others only knew their dead were
left in the cncmy's hands, and the
tale of how and where they were laid
was never to be told. Not even was
wretched widowed mother, known to
US all, who had given up her only
wealth, six sturdy husbandmen, to the
cause we loved so we'll, permitted the
small comfort Of bringing back to rest
in the old churchyard a single one Of