Year: 1874

tore been spread before their unre-
strained hands. Sutler stores of
rich variety and tempting profusion,
commissaly stores, quartermaster
stores, medical stores, and above all,
the richly furnished quarters Of the
officers all spread out in tempting
abundance, offered an opportunity
for plunder that better disciplined
army than ours could not have sue
cessfully resisted. AS for myself, a
night Of intolerable anguish and
painful anxiety was my portion
The field hospital was but poorly
arranged, and still more poorly pro
vided. Hundreds of manned and
dying had been huddled together
in such confusion that the surgeon
really did not know when or upon
whom to attend. The little home
that served as a hospital was crowd
ed,and the yard was soon equally as
full. Not a tent was stretched to
shelter those in the yard. I was
placed upon the floor of the little
piazza that stood in front Of the cot
tage. I shared my blanket with a
wounded Federal Captain, and to,
gether we groaned through that
night. My Lieutenant, James R.
Allen, lay near me, mourning from
a mortal wound in the abdomen
My poor brother was dead on the
field, and the woe that oppressed
me was almost too heavy to bear.
! To add to the horrors Of that
long night, a fearful thunder storm
arose, about midnight, and the poor
shelterless, helpless wounded on the
ground were almost drowned in the
food Of rain that deluged the yard.
Chilled by the pitiless rain, and
cold from the loss Of blood, many
Of them tainted and died.


But at length the morning came
-not IS the morning before had
come, with a glorious burst of sun,
but dark and ebony and chill
The sun of Austerlitz had set; the
sun of Waterloo was hidden beyond
the clouds; the clouds hung heavi-
ly-dark with threatening rain; the
very air seemed full of gloomy fore
boding, and as the wind sighed
through the tops of the oaks, its
melancholy diapason was re-echoed
in my soul.


Gloomily the morning hours
dragged their weary moments
away. No sound from the front
! told us that the battle had to be
fought again. Eight o'clock came
and all was still. It was nearly
nine o'clock before the roll of mus
kerry and the roar Of artillery told
the tale. I am aware that other,
and indeed all published accounts
of this battle, opened the fight on
the 7th of April at a much earlier
hour. Gen. Beauregard, in his Of
fetal report, says: ''At about 6
o'clock the enemy began to fire"
But of this one thing I am certain,
that it was 9 o'clock before the first
sound of battle reached our field
hospital, distance only one and a
half miles from the ground.


And when it did come, it had not
that animated ring which character
lied the earnest struggle of the
day before. A desultory firing al
day long-sometimes almost entire
ly hushed, and then again bursting
out in a ftfu passion, like the
maudlin rawlings Of a drunken man
No glory was won by either side
upon tnat day. The arrival of Gen
Buel the night before saved the enc
my from destruction, but that was
all. Our lines, all broken as they
were by the nights demoraization


repulsed every single advance O.


the enemy, and never single time
retired under the fire.


All that weary day I lay upon my


back, unable to move single mus


Gle without painful effort, and lis


tened to that sham Of a battle. A


length, about 3 o'clock in the after


noon the firing ceased. Then (


courier came and ordered the pro


vost guard to move off with th'


prisoners. Soon another came or


dering all the wounded who could


possibly travel to leave, as tn


army was about to retreat to Corinth


Retreat! after that glorious day o
Shiloh retreat and leave our wound
ed and our dead in the hands of th
enemy; that enemy to whom, tn
evening before, we could have die


tsted a conqueror's terms. Re


treat! the thought was too much
and in the bitterness of my soul, .


cried like child, and not only
: but hundreds Of others braver ant
: stronger than I.-CommonpeaHh.
"Some years ago." said Oh
Hank, II took bed bug to al
/ iron foundry, and dropped it il
, the ladle where the melted iro>
, was, and bad it run into the ski
l lot We'll nv old woman use