The National tribune., 1902-06-19

BILE by improvising couch with the aid
Of two cushions and the Sergeant's 5lan-
kets. The Sergeant was asleep first, but
soon / started off into dreanland upon an
excursion of my own.
l was at home-the sisters had been
kissed, and l was getting some good home
cooking - in my dreams - when l was
startled therefrom by the shrill, nervous
double whistle Of "Down brakes" and
fearful Earring on the sleepers Of the
roadbed. Then, l ricochetted upon the
shoulders of two ladies whom l had seen
sitting about three seats in front Of where
we had been lying. They both grabbed
hold Of me and one said, Can you pray"
and the other said, Can you get us out
Of here" There was not word of apOl-
ogy on either side, and we did not wait
for an introduction. Somehow we all four
got out on to the ground. The oiler on
our locomotive was the only one of our
train who was severely injured; and we
saw him boiled to death by escaping
steam before our very eyes. The Ser
geant said, II told you that l wasn't GO
ing to hell, but this looks enough like it."
The fact was that we had run into the
rear Of that extra train and three cars
had been telescoped by our locomotive;
9 men were killed outright and As or 50
severely injured. Now, had been in all
the engagements in which my regiment
had taken part-12, including the era
ter Disaster" l had visited the bloody an
gle at Spottsylvania, day or so after the
fight Of the Second Corps, and before the
bodies had been buried; and had been in
Fort HELP when it was rather thickly
settled with dead and dying; but l dare
say, after the quiet retrospect OF 36 years,
that the butchery Of sleeping soldiers on
that quiet Spring morning in the village
Of Bristol, Berks County, Pa, surpassed
for horror any scene l have witnessed be-
fore or since. l will not attempt to de-
scribe it. Let the copy of any intelligent
reporter answer it in general terms. The
cussedness of it can be family estimated
by two incidents which fell under my
own observation that night.
It must have been between 2 and
o'clock in the morning; escaping steam,
shrieks, groans and the utmost confusion
startled the people of the village from
their slumbers, and they FASTENED in
Of them opened their homes, and the
dirty and bloody bodies of the dying and
wounded were taken into the very beds
that they themselves had occupied half
hour before: surgeons from a military hos
pital had galloped in ambulances to the
place, and ali was being done that human
ity could do to relieve the situation.
lQeTe were luclQeHtS enough 10 Ill Ine
broadside of a metropolitan daily, but
never had the nerve to read them, and of
| course 1 did not see them all. II any old
soldier who was beneath the rank of a
Brigadier-G General, or one serving on the
| staff Of q General, tells you that he was
| the eyewitness Of a full series of Incl
dents connected with any given battle,
you may be quite sure that he was in the
hospital at the time, or has supplemented
1nl
| the "oficial report" l will venture to
relate one incident which occurred that
| morning:
Leroy ii. Varnum-that was his true
name-had icined my company In July
| Of the previous year, having come from
| the hospital after an attack of the meas
| les. He was a splendid soldier, of jovial
disposition, gentlemanly bearing and the
enormous appetite of a convaIescent; he
was always ready to do his whole duty
and help the other fellow do his, too. Not
many days cfter he had Joined the com
mand the explosion Of the fort and the
hand struggle in the Crater oc-
Cured; he, with others who were not
killed or permitted to run the gauntlet
of hell between the contending lines, was
| taken prisoner on the Both of July. /
had escaped the same fate by the use of a
| talisman to be spoken only on rare oc-
cnsions in a mans life. But that belongs
to another story, for there have been too
many "sidngs'' from the main track of
this one already.
After the disabled passengers of the
wreck at Bristol had been cared for as
well as possible, we two, the Sergeant and
!, went the rounds to see il, perchance,
there was any one among the dead or
wounded whom either of us knew. In a
private house, upon parlor couch freely
given for the purpose. he found q boy
from his own company. We went over
to the hotel where we had carried two or
three and found the Office, parlors and
billiard room filled with dead and wound.
ed. / had slowly passed from one to IN,
other, lifting the cloth to peer into q dead
face, and wiping coal dust and the blood
from a mangled one, giving drink to the
fevered ones, all the while watching fol
some mark Of Identification, as had done
dozen times before in the Army Of the
Potomac. l stood beside a body lying
with three others on a billiard table; tbs
eyes were closed the face was calm, ths
hair was matted with blood mixed witt
coal dust; could detect no sign Of life
|, put my ear to his lips and over his
heart, and was about to say to a hospita
steward near by, ''This one 10 dead,
! when the boy Of p opened his eyes, and
with deep, longing expression which IL
memory IL indelibly stamped upon my