The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-10

ner; the wet and mud seemed 10 have
produced no effect whatever on their
spirits, which were as boisterous as
ever. They had got hold of colored
prints of Mr.. Lincoln, which they were
passing about from company to COM
pany with many remarks upon the per-
sonal beauty of Uncle Abe The same
old chaff was going on of Come out OF
that hat-I know you're in it'll sees
your legs a dangling down. etc.
Indeed, the evidence of impartial
observers of Confederate officers, and
of the events after the battle, not
withstanding this terrible experience,
and loss of 20, 451 men, the morale of
Lees army was in little or nothing i'm
paired. 1t had inflicted a loss upon
its gallant opponents of 2S0O3 killed,
wounded and captured. No serious
attack was made upon its retreatins
columns. Indeed, so severe was the
blow it had inflicted upon Gen. Meade
and so cautious was his pursuit that
nettled by criticisms from Washington
the general of the victorious army at
once rendered his resignation.
Gen. Lee was bitterly disappointed
with the battle of Gettysburg. No
complaint ever fell from his lips, but
on more than one occasion he declared,
If Gen. Jackson had been there, we
ION the 5th of May. Grant crosses
the Rappahannock and the Rapidan
and starts with his massy columns on
the road to Richmond. Soon his thou
sands are entangled in the Wilderness
and Lee ever audacious, with a portion
of his army is laundering on his right
marching flank. 1t is said a bog
rapher of Gen. Lee, "a terrible field Tor
a battle. region of tangled under
brush, ragged foliage and knotted
trunks You hear the Saturnalia,
gloomy, hideous, desperate, raging I'M
confined. You see nothing. and the
very mystery augments the horror;
from out the depths comes the ruin
that had been wrought, in bleeding
shapes borne in blankets or on stretch
ers. Soldiers fell, writhed and died
unseen, their bodies lost in the bushes,
their dying groans drowned in the
steady, continuous, unceasing crash.
Both armies fight with all the intrepid
courage of their heroic line.
with great sweep to the left, Grant
seeks to reach Spottsylvania Court
House and interpose between Lee and
Richmond, but when he reaches his OBJ
jective, the gray ritlemen of Lee are
in his path. For twelve days the in
trepid army of the Union reiterated the
thin gray line. Occasionally broken by
overpowering numbers, but rallying
and charging anew under the inspiring
presence of their leader those heroes
in rags ever held their ground.
AT half-past four on the morning of
the 18th of May, over a V-shaped sa-
lient on Gen. Ewelrs works, that gal
liant Union general whom Meade term
ed Hancock the superb rushed
fol I'nOfP6-
crate prisoners and twenty pieces of
artillery. The line was untenable.
The engineering eye of Lee had de-
tected the defect and while withdraw
ing the artillery to make realignment,
the charging columns came. The mo-
ment was critical. The Confederate
army was cut in two. And, deter
mined to restore it, with the fighting
blood of his hero strain lighting his
noble face with the glow of battle,
Lee mounted on gray Traveller
brave as his master, dashes to the
head of the charging column, and
takes off his hat to lead his men into
the death hail sweeping the Bloody
Angle But another is there. In civil
life and on the fiery crest of battle
leader of men, daring, magnetic, elo-
quent, a hero fighter while the war
was on, but since then very apostle
of peace and reconciliation, who hav-
ing reflected glory upon the generation
he has survived, crowned with all that
should accompany old age idolized by
every Southerner and Venerated by
every American heart, Lieut.. Gen.
John B. Gordon, thank God, yet sur
Viving to a1orn the times in which he
lives. To the rear, Gen. Lee ex-
claimed the gallant Gordon, these are
Virginians and Georgians, who have
never failed And under the wave of
Gordon's sword the fearless veterans
advance. The stars and bars and
stars and stripes are in actual con-
tact across the blood-stained rampant
The driving storm of rifle balls gnaw
off the forest trees, which crushing fall
on friend and foe. Drenched with
rain, covered with mud and blackened
with powder, the opposing lines des-
perately fight. Shells bursting from
mortar fire rain down destruction,
storms of canister from double shot
ted cannon sweep the parapets and
all the while the deadly mines cease
lessly hail across the appalling scene.
The dead bodies sometimes four deep
are again and again thrown from the
trenches, which run with blood. Fin
ally when after twenty hours of death
grapple, through sheer exhaustion the
battle ceases to rage, unShaken In
their lines stand the indomitable men
in gray and Gordon's pledge to Lee is
kept With soldierly and significant
brevity, Gen. Grant reports that the
Confederate lines were carried, but
the resistance was SO obstinate that
the advantage gained did not prove
decisive
DAY after day the tragic, piteous
story is the same, on the North Anna
at Cold Harbor, in many an unnamed
combat, the Army of Grant hurls it.
self with devoted courage against the
swerveless constancy of Lees fierce
and hungry soldiers. Thousands of the
bravest and the best on both sides
perish. When the fight is, over the
inanimate clay is in trenches laid. an6
the slender earthworks which shelter
ed the living, turned over on the silent
heroes, whether of the blue or gray
now shelter the dead.
Finally convinced that in the fielC
the army of Lee was uncomfortable
Gen. Grant, by pontoonS and his i'm
mense fiotilla, swiftly transfers hi!
army to the south of the James. HI
intends to surprise Petersburg anC
compel the evacuation of Richmond
But Lees penetration is not at fault
The slumbers of the people of Rich
mond are disturbed by the tramp o
marching thousands. 1t is the tireles
route step of Lees fighters Fastening
at top speed to find their enemy. Ant
so when dawn breaks on famous Pc
tersburg, the last stronghold of tn
! Confederacy, and when the charging
columns of Grant rush to the attack {
brush away the home guards an