Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1903-10-24
ON THE BRINK
tOriginal.l

lievcd 1t was the creation of an over.
strained brain. l, the only one fitted
to pass Judgment upon what l alone
was cognizant of, have no opinion to
offer. One thing l know-we, living
in this age of rationalism, have ban
iShed all save the material. FOolfi
We see stars In the heavens countless
millions of miles away because our
eyes are adapted to see them. How
easy for our Creator to have given Us
another lens with which to discern
spirits near at hand. And may not a
mans eye, under certain strained con-
ditions, be SO changed as to form q
spiritual image?
From early morning till afternoon
the Confederate General Albert Sidney
Johnston had flung one battle wave
after another upon the Union army
under Grant. He had said at sunrise,
Before 1t sets we shall water our
horses in the Tennessee" Before that
setting he and thousands of his men
had passed from their material bodies.
The first day Of the battle of Shiloh
had passed, leaving no sound save an
occasional boom, here and there rifle
shot. but above all the cries of the
wounded.
had fought in the "hornets' nest"
and there | had been severely wound
ed, lying where l fell, among heap
of slain. 1t was early in April, and
to- 1, -l,t ie in
the northern states. l looked up and
saw the leaves of a tree lazily tlutter-
ing in the breeze l remember it be-
cause Of the peaceful contrast with the
hell raging within me. Oh, that thirst.
How it was driving me mad. Then
for time lost consciousness.
When l came to myself it must have
been after midnight. l think so be-
cause the wounded, at least those near
me, had been removed, and there was
no living thing near me. Doubtless
had been left for dead. Was l not in
the first stage of DEATH yet not destined
for the last stage? l had no feeling Of
pain. lay thinking Of the events Of
the past day. Suddenly l heard a
bugle call. 1t was 1.-The assembly" But
instead of having the rasping ring Of
metal it was like seraph's voice.
l started up. How light 1 was!
Nothing was an effort. Looking
around. saw over each body its coun-
terpart rising and hurrying away. l
stood on my feet, and. looking down.
there lay my own corpse. Turning,
saw men forming in the ranks of war.
l called to an officer who passed me
and asked him:
What does this all meanT
"They are coming"
"Who"
"The Confederate dead"
"What. DO the dead fight onf"
Eyes; we are simply what we left off
being yesterday We shall now de-
velop differently, more rapidly and on
a much brs,dcr scale. But for the
prescnt-come, we must join"
We hurried forward to where this
singular army was forming, and, pass
ing the flank, l stood for n moment
looking down the line. In the faces Of
the men WAS all the war passion of liv-
ing beings. but none of the fatigue,
none of the suffering. The forms were
like night mist, and l noticed that
they not only tiickered with an un-
steady motion, but the line seemed
like n flag through which a breeze is
passing, imparting undulations.
BY this time there was line of bat
tie formed composed of regiments,
whose meager numbers were indicated
by the nearness of the standards. I
heard cheer-it sounded like a dis
tant whistling of wind-and man
rode by in a generals uniform.
HE was the ranking sacrifice yester-
day." said man at my elbow, "but he
is no match for the Confederate gener-
al in chief"
Our leader waved his sword above
his head, reckoning us to follow him.
There was neither sound of firing nor
tramp of men. Often since, when look
ing at the great panOramas of battle
fields in which the action is wildly
portrayed without the slightest sound,
l have thought Of this advance of dead
men. Here and there we would come
to part of the field occupied by
camps, but we passed through them as
though they We're of vapor. Then sud-
denly emerging from wood we saw
the COnfcdcrates advancing to meet us.
Their leader was tall, magnificent
looking man in the uniform of Con-
federate general. When l first saw him
he was riding back and forth before
his troops encouraging them. They
We're singular army, infantrymen,
artillerymen, cavalrymen, standing
shoulder to shoulder. The battle flags
were torn and dingy. The singular fea-
ture to me was that disembOdied spir-
its should have had to do with ma
terial surroundings. But moments
thought shows this to be probably ow-
ing to the imperfectiOn of my spiritual
vision. Might not have been able to
discern the spirit with an embryo spir-
itual eye, clothing it with material
surroundings with my bodily percep-
tons? BE that as it may, the men
were dressed and armed and moved as
living beings.
But my vision was cut short in the
beginning. for just as was looking
forward to knowledge of how spirits
fight we FLASHED. and I heard a hu-
man voice say. This one isn't dead"
and in twinkling the spectral armies
vanished. and a man stood over me.
leaning on a spade. A cloud of smoke