The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1905-12-07
BATTLE OF PIEDMONT.
COmrade DUN Reyisits the Field II Years
After.

days, when he was carrying musket
in the ranks of the 1st w. Va:
Except that the morning was a
trif1e warmer. it was the same lovely
sunshiny day that it was Al years ago,
when We three-two Johnny Rebs and
a Yank-had met on the same spot.
1t was easy to pick out the points
where the battle ragged the deadliest
that other day, and where the blood of
the North and South had flowed In one
red stream.
THE strip of woodland yonder from
which our boys had emerged torn and
bleeding was still there, and as we
looked up at the great scars still show
ing the awful work of the rebel bat
terry just across the meadow, 1t seemed
that not a tree had been touched since
the war.
Just beyond was the meadow across
which we charged, and where we re-
ceived such a binding, death-dealing
deluge of bullets from the rail piles on
the farther edge that we were COM
PEELED to creep back to the protection
of the woods.
And there was the little ravine up
which Won KleySer pushed unObserved
two guns from his Maryland battery.
and poured such an awful fire at close
range into the rail piles that instantly
they became death-traps to the hud-
ding Confederates behind them.
1--WE could almost hear the Yankee
yell as we rushed across the meadow
piles in a death grapple the like Of
which had been rarely witnessed even
in the bloody civil war.
The bloody scene seemed almost as
real on this beautiful Summer morning
Al years after as it had on that other
morning when brother met brother in
that mad death struggle. There be-
in6 ofo1
dead men in gray, their bodies torn and
mangled into frightful shapes, and in
the midst of the CHASTITY heaps were
dying men bravely giving up their
lives for the cause they thought was
right.
Just over there under that tree was
the body Of Gen. w. E. Jones, the Con-
through his temple and about him,
dying or dead, the flower Of his army.
They had died on the very front line
of the battle.
ut seemed that we could again see
the strengthening old man, his eyes
already glazing in death: his thin
white locks all blood-stained, begging
us for drink of water before he died.
We could almost hear him feebly tell
ing his story over again. He had been
into the service at Staunton
only the day before. He hadn't fired
a shot at the Stars and Stripes, and at
the beginning of the battle had driven
pin into the tube Of his gun to prevent
It's discharge.
"A little further down the line we
came to the spot where Confederate
battery had met with such hard luck
The fine black horses had been killed
before the guns could be moved; and
a young gunner-not yet out Of his
teens-with a bullet hole in his fore
Mt %no
perate courage with which the men had
chung to their guns.
Again we could hear the cry of the
wounded and the dying In the strip of
woodland during the night. The strug-
gle had lasted until nightfall, and we
had sunk down exhausted and supper
less on. the Confederate line to fitful
sleep just where our enemy had made
his last stubborn stand. From this line
he had fled only when the last vestige
Of hope had departed. Amid their dead
and dying we bivouacked.
"AH night long the ambulances and
Hunters relief corps were busy search
ing the woods for the wounded and
dead, but the underbrush and leaves
had caught fire from the battle. and the
smoke was so intense as to suffocate
the searchers. It was a dreadful night,
and will never pass from the memory
OF the participants on either side.
"One thing we never knew, and the
two ex-Confederates at our elbow don't
seem to know either. OF yonder to the
left In that stretch of timber Imboden
lay all day with 500 cavalry. When
Thoburn. in desperate effort,
pushed in the Confederate right flank
that afternoon had Imboden galloped
across the field and struck our left,
nothing could have saved us. and the
rebel forces might have won the day.
onrf h1
sort. Within 800 yards Of his place of
concealment two companies Of the writ
er's regiment fired one volley after an
other to distract the attention Of the
Confederate right and thus give Tho
burn an opportunity to advance. And
still Imboden was silent. Why we were
not killed or captured, and why Tho
burn WAS not struck at the critical mo-
ment will never be known probably.
"Forty-one years after we are struck
with the slightness Of the change in
this country. The same stretches OF
timber crown the ridges off yonder to
the east. The same fields are waving
with their Summer fruitage; the same
whitewashed farm houses-cannon-b bat
tered from that days dread conflict
are filled with simple-minded, kind
hearted, contented country folk. The
old Dunkard Church in the direct line
OF the battle, and which received the
wounded of either side after the roar
OF the battle had swept by. still stands
among the grim old oaks a mute. un-
ornamented protest against the saw
agery Of war.
Dreadful was that bloody Piedmont
battle-the first and the last that was
fought In that section Of Virginia. 1t
Is not to be wondered that the old men
OF Augusta County still speak of 1t with
horror, and that q later generation look
upon the field with ave. Col. Turk
and Capt. Kerr at our side were lads
on that bloody day and were our enc
mics. Today. arm in arm, we wander
over the field and together thank God
not only that the struggle is past for
ever, but that 1t all ended as It did"
Gen. Geo. b. Mcclellan.
Editor National Trfhupo. Tooc,~,,ar,