The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-06
BATTLE OF SHILOH



Continued from page 23J
contained a thick underground OF
young sapliugs, every one of which
had been severed by a bullet, the TO
liage OF the PROSTATE tops being after
wards burnt and the stumps charred
Death had put his sickle into this
rhicket, and fire had CLEANED the field
Along a line which was not that of
extreme DEPRESSION but was at every
point significantly equi-distant from
the heights on either hand, lay the
bodies half buried in ashes; some
in the uniovely looseness of attitude
denoting sudden death by the bullet,
but by far the greater number in
postures of agony that told of the
tnrmentins flame, Their clothing was
half burnt away--their hair and beard
entirely, the rain had come too late
20 save their nails Some were swol-
Zen 10 double girth; others shriveled
10 manikins. According to degree Of
exposure, their faces were bloated and
black or yellow and shrunken. The
contraction of muscles which had Civ
en- them claws for hands had cursed
each countenance with a hideous grin
Faugh' l cannot catalogue the charms
of these gallant gentlemen who had
got what they enlisted for.
1t was now three o'clock in the
afternoon, and raining For fifteen
hours We had been wet to the skin.
Chilled sleepy, hungry and disap-
pointed - profoundly disguised with
rhe nglorious part to which they had
been conference.-the men of my regi-
ment did everything doggedly The
spirit had gone quite out of them
Blue sheets of powder smoke, drift
ing amongst the trees, settling against
the hillsides. and beaten into moth
ingness by the falling rain, filled the
air with their peculiar pungent odor,
but it no longer stimulated. For miles
on either hand could be heard the
hoarse mutter of the battle breaking
out near by with frightful distinct
ness, or sinking to murmur in the
distance, and the one sound attracted
no more attention than the other, We
had been placed again in the rear of
those guns, but even they and their
iron antagonists seemed to have ttr-
ed of their purposeless feud, pound
ing away al one another with amia,
BILE infTequenCy. The right of the re-
giment extended a little beyond the
field On the prolongation of the line
in that direction We're some regiments
of another division, with one IN re.
serve A third of a mile back lay the
remnant of somebody's brigade look
ing to its wounds The line of for
est bounding this end of the field
stretched as straight as a wall from
the right of my regiment to heaven
knows what regiment Of the enemy
There suddenly appeared, marching
down along this wall, not more than
two hundred yards in our front, a
dozen files Of gray clad men with
muskets on the right shoulder. At an
interval of fifty yards they were fol
lowed by perhaps half as many more;
and in fair supporting distance Of
these stalked with confident mien a
single man, There seems to me now
something indescribably ludicrous in
the advance of this handful of men
upon an army, albeit with their left
Hank protected by forest 1t did not
SO impress me then-nor anybody.
They were the exposed ends Of three
lines Of infantry, each half a mile in
length, In a moment our gunners had
grappled with the nearest pieces,
swung them half round, and were
pouring streams of canister into the
invaded wood The infantry rose in
masses, lpringing into line. The
threatened regiments stood like a
wall their loaded muskets at ready"
their bayOnets hanging quietly in the
scabbards. The right wing OF my
own regiment was thrown slightly
backward TO threaten the flank of the