Year: 1869

1
through living stark dead at my side, with


a bulIet-hole in his head, his shock of
coarse, black hair matted with blood, and
his stony eyes looking into mine. Well,
bandaged up my limb the best l might,
and started to crawl away, for our bat
teries had opened, and the grape and can
| lister that came hurting down the slope
passed but a few feet over my head. 1t


was slow and painful work, as you can
imagine, but at last, by dint of persever-
ance, had dragged myself away to the
left of the direct range of the batteries,
and creeping to the verge OF the wood,
looked off over the green slope. under
stood by the crash and roar of the guns,
the yells and cheers of the men, and that
hoarse murmur which those who have
been in battle know, but which | cannet
describe in words, that there was hot work
going on out there but never had seen,
no. not in that three days desperate melee
at the Wilderness, nor at that terrific re-
pulse we had at Cold Harbor, such abso-
lutte slaughter as I saw that afternoon on
the green slope of Malvern Hill. The
guns of the entire army were massed on
the crest, and thirty thousand of our in
fantry lay, musket in hand, in front. For
eight hundred yards the hill sank in easy
declension to the wood, and across this
smooth expanse the Rebs must charge to
reach our line. 1t was nothing short of
downright insanity to order men to charge
that hill and 80 his Generals told Lee,
| but he would not listen to reason thatsday,
and so he sent regiment after regiment,
and brigade after brigade, and division
| after division, to certain death. Talk
about Grants disregard of human life, his
effort at Cold Harbor-and / ought to
know, for got mimic in my shoulder
that day-was hopeful and easy work to


what Lee laid on Hills and Magruder's
divisions at Malvern. 1t was at the close


of the second charge, when the yelling


mass reeled back from before the blaze of
these sixty guns and thirty thousand rifles,


even as they began to break and fly back


ward toward the woods, that | saw from


the spot where I lay riderless horse


break out of the confused and flying mass,


and, with name and tail erect and spread


ing nostril, come dashing obliquely down


the slope. Over fallen steeds and heaps


of the dead she leaped with motion as
airy as that of the flying fox when, fresh


and unjaded, he leads away from the
hounds, whose sudden cry has broken him


off from hunting mice amid the bogs of
the meadow. So this riderless horse came
| diOuE. IOW AOul uly LCob
| boyhood have had what horsemen call
weakness for horses. Only give me q
colt of wild, irregular temper and fierce
blood to tame, ,'and I am perfectly happy.
Never did lash of mine, singing with
cruel sound through the air, fall on such
a colts soft hide. Never did yell or kick
send his hot blood from heart to head
deluging his sensitive brain with fiery cur
reHG- Iriu I'M 70 hlin6Inp
him with fear but touches, soft and gen
tie as a woman's, caressing words, and
oats given from the open palm, and un-
1sfling kindness, were the means used
10 'subiugate' him. Sweet subiugation,
both to him who subdues and to him who
yields! The Wild unmannerly, and un-
manageable colt, the fear of horsemen
the country round, finding in you, not an
enemy but friend, receiving his daily
| food from you, and all those little moth
| ings' which 90 as far with 8 horse as a


woman, to win and retain affection, grows
| to look upon you % protector and
| friend, and testifes in countless ways his
fondness for you. So when I saw this
horse. with action so free and motion so
| graceful, amid that storm of bullets, my
| heart involuntarily went out to her, and
my feelings rose higher and higher at
every leap she took from amid the whirl-
wind of FIRE and lead AS she plunged st
last over little hillock out of range and
came careering toward me as only rider
| less horse might come, her head flung
wildly from side to side. her nostrils wide
| ly spread, her f1anks and shoulders fecked
with foam, her eye dilating, forgot my


wound and all the wild roar of battle, and,
lifting myself involuntarily to sitting
posture as she swept grandly by, gave her


a ringing cheer.


| "Perhaps in the sound of human


voice Of happy mood amid the awful din


she recognized resemblance to the voice


of him whose blood moistened her shoul-


ders and was even yet dripping from sad


die and housings. Be that as it may, no


sooner had my voice sounded than she
flung her head with proud upward move
ment into the air, swerved sharply to the


left, neighed as she might to master at


morning from her stall. and came trotting


directly up to where lay, and, pausing,


looked Down upon me as it were in COM
| passion. spoke again, and stretched out
my had caressingly. She pricked her


ears, took step forward and lowered her


nose until it came in contact with my


palm. Never did fondle anything more


tenderly, never did see an animal which


seemed to so court and appreciate human


tenderness as that beautiful mare. say


beautiful No other word might de-


scribe her. Never will her image fade
from my memory while memory lasts.


"In weight she might have turned,


when we'll conditioned, nine hundred and
fifty pounds. In color she was dark
chestnut, with velvety depth and soft
look about the hair indescribably rich and
| elegant Many time have l heard Ia
! dies dispute the shade and hue of her


plush. like coat as they ran their white,


iewelled fingers through her silken


hair. Her body was round in the


barrel, and perfectly symmetrical. She
| was wide in the launches, without projec-


ton of the hip bones, upon which the


shorter ribs seemed to lap. High in the
withers as she was, the line of her back
and neck perfectly curved, while
her deep, oblique shoulders and
long thick forearm, ridgy with
swelling sinews, suggesting the per-
| fection of stride and power. Her knees
across the pan were wide, the cannon bone
below them short and thin: the pasterns
long and sloping; her hoofs round, dark,
shiny, and well set on. Her name was a
shade darker than her coat, fine and thin,
as athoroughbred's always is whose blood


is without taint or cross. Her ear was


thin, sharply pointed, delicately curved,


nearly black around the borders, and as


tremulous as the leaves of an aspen. Her


neck rose from the withers to the head in


perfect curvature, hard, devoid of fat, and