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

lN u luNlt NltN ibuuNlf - i'NN Ni''' ' '
Not sign of battle was here. Ths
trees we're neither splintercd nor
SCARED. the undcrbrush was unknown,
the ground had no footprints but our
own. II was as it we had broken in
10 glades sacred to eternal silence. !
should not have been surprised TO see
sleek leopards come fawning about
our feet, or milk-white deer confront
us with human eyes.
A few inaudible commands from at
invisible leader had placed us in order
for battle But there was the enc
my? Where, too, We're the broken
regiments we had come to save? Had
our other divisions arrived during the
night, and passed the river to assist
us? or were we to oppose our paltry
five thousand breasts to an army
flushed with victory? What protect
ed our right? Who lay upon our LETT
Was there really anything in on.
front? There came borne to us on
the raw morning air. the long, weird
note of a bugle. 1t was directly be
fore us. II rose with a low, clear de-
liberate MARBLE. and seemed to float in
the gray sky like the note Of a lark
The bugle-calls Of the Federal and
the Confederate armies We're the
same! 1t was the assembly As it
died away observed that the atmos,
phere had suffered a change; despite
the equilibrium established by the
storm it was electric. Wings were
growing on blistered feet. Bruised
muscles and iolted bones, shoulders
pounded by the cruel knapsack, eye
lids leaden from lack of sleep, all
We're pervaded by the subtle fluid-all
were unconscious of their clay. The
men thrust forward their heads, eX-
banded their eyes and clenched their
teeth They breathed hard, as if
throttled by Juggling at the leash. If
you had laid your hand in the beard
or hair of one of these men it would
have cracked AID shot sparks.
VI
suppose the country lying between
Corinth and Pittsburgh Landing could
boast a few inhabitants other than
alligators. What manner of people
they were it is impossible to say, in
asmuch as the fighting dispersed, or
possibly eXterminated them; perhaps
in merely chasing them as non-sau-
rain | shall describe them with sutfi-
cient particularly, and at the same
time avert from myself the natural
suspicion attaching to a writer who
points out to people who do not
know him the surprising peculiarities
of people whom he does not know
One thing, however, | hope | may
affirm of these swamp-dwellers with
out offense-they were pious. TIC
what deity their yeneration was Civ
en-whether, like the Egyptians, they
worshipped the crocodile, or like 9th
! err Americans, adored themselves, | dc
not presume to guess. But whoever
or whatever, may have been the div
! unity whose ends they shaped into
Him. or 1t, they had builded a TEN
pie, This edifce of unhewn logs, cen
traliy situated in the heart of soil
tude, and conveniently accessible t.
the supersylvan crow, bad been chris
tened Shiloh Chapel, whence the nam
of the battle. The fact of a Christian
church-assuming to have been
wholesale cutting of Christian throat
by Christian hands needs not b
dwelt on here; the frequency of it
recurrence in the history of our sp'
cies has somewhat abated the mora
interest which would otherwise a
tach to it.
Owing to the darkness, the storl
and the absence of a road, it had bee
impossible TO move the artillery frol
the open ground about the Landing
. The privation was much greater in
moral than in a material sense. Til
infantry soldier feels a confidence
this cumbrous arm quite unwarran
ed by its actual achievements
thinning out the opposition. There
p something that inspires confidence
: the way a gun dashes up to the iron
r showing fifty or a hundred men to OF
side as if it said Permit met" The
g ii squares its shoulders, calmly disl
T. Gates a joint in it's back sends ava
o its twenty-four legs, and settle dov
y with a quiet rattle which says
e plainly as possible I've come to stay
e There is a superb scorn in its gri
E. " defiant attitude, with its nose
L the air; it appears not so much
a. threaten the enemy as hold him
TX contempt.
b. Our batteries were probably TOLL
H. after us somewhere; we could oil
s, hope the enemy might delay its alta