The Washington times., 1913-08-17
CHAPTER VIII.
Oh, the Wild Charge They Madei

- RONTING them a mile away rose
- another range OF hills roughly
paralleling the ridge upon which
they stood. The ground sloped
gently down from their feet until It met
country road running diagonalIy upon
a slight rise through the valley. On
the east side of the road there was a
dip and then a sudden rise-a partial
ravine or swale-in the ground which
thereafter rose gently by easy accents
to the top of the opposite line of hills.
Far to the left, bathed in the brilliant
sunshine of the long midsummer after
noon, the sky above them bright with
light. not a cloud floating overhead,
lay the buildings OF little Pennsylva-
mia town. Church spires rose above
IL pointing heavenward-as spires should
while upon the earth beneath men
played the game of hell. In front oil
and to the right of the Virginians lay
a ruined peach orchard, TO the left OF
that what had been a wheat field,
Clumps of trees here and there dotted
the valley. Farmhouses with huge
barns and outbuiliings attached clurg
alcng the road. Save for a faint blue
haze, the light mist of smoke that still
hung over the valley, the scene was as
peaceful as 1t had been four days before,
when the converging of great armies
upon this field had not been dreamed Of.
Topping the ridge upon the other side
ere long lines of men in blue. They
were not distinguishable to the Vir-
ginians save as thin streaks of dark
color against the yellow earth or the
green grass. These men occupied po-
sitions little below the crest of that
OF posing range of hills. Along the line
at intervals fiagstaffs upreared them
selves; banners bright with stripes and
stars f1uttered gaily in the wind. Against
the skyline, wherever trees permitted,
great guns were silhouetted. The smoke
vas thickest about the guns, but the
breeze blowing down the valley from
the north was rapidly driving II away.
Two great armies for two long hot
summer days had been tearing at each
others throats in 4 terrific death grap-
pie. Every foot of that valley had been
fought over. The peach orchard was
almost cut TO pieces by the stream Of
bullets that had swept through it. The
wheat field had been trampled into a
sodden mass of mire, whose solvent had
been the blood of men. In the barns
and outhouses were great gaping holes
that told OF bursting shells, and some
that had been happy homes of yester-
day were now open 10 the sky in
smouldering ruins. Not square yard
of earth scarcely that had not well
coined to its dust what had once been
man, and many of these square yards
still upbore their dead tenants.
OF to tie right were two sleeper
hills the Round Tops. Not Chicka-
mauga itself would see deadlier strug-
gle than had taken place the day be-
fore to seize those conical projections.
Well was the spot beneath them called
the DEVILS Den, for the place had been
piled so thick with slain that they had
hidden the shamed face of Mother
Earth. and men might walk from one
end to the other upon them where they
still lay unheeded. Let the dead bury
the dead is an Injunction to which bat
ties always give heed.
A strange silence. solemn hush had
fallen over the whole scene as II ma
ture itself took breath with a heart
beating Silly before the approaching
shock of charging troops. Not a single
gun roared its hoarse note of defiance
and sped its missile of destruction
toward the foe on either hill. To the
north, to the south, even around the
great gray crescent encircling the com