Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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BA ' HORRORS OF WAR. Graphic Description of War Times i JH Writton From the Bat,/M s tlefleld. federate Veteran. ! 4 J, J. T. Dargan, of the Atlanta > V1 sends a remarkable paper ^following introductory note: I ;Ul enclose you a copy of < jit ten from Phillips, *Va., i I of August (i, 1802, by I yvidson and addressed to i a.I's. Maclean, who was at I YQL("SS Clara Dargan of Coj C Wnvidson was well ( T?n.v years as one of the i STANDARD tTn'"" "'? ",c * ?es> and a man of ])ro- j. TWFN rVV'l^ 1>oor fellow! ho i 1 It DIl 1 I yn Floi.i(la- , sim|))v f /Iter as a thrilling; bit i MAXIMUM Pee from the battle- , \ GEPTJ^i. It was written in * \ y > ' while he was in camp, j D<y was'at that time attached to a | ij nth Carolina regiment. As a cur- < f .osity I send you the original, show- j iug that every word was written with f punctilious care and without a , i scratch anywhere. This is certainly , / remarkable, considering the surround- , /inns lie must have been facing at that ' time.'' The following is an exact copy of the letter except the omission' of ( italics: < Vivid Description Written at the Time. < Phillips. Ya? (i August. IS(>l\ > And you would have "the grand- \ cur and glory of the real battle"? si "impressions, incidents, and acci- i dents?" I The magnificence of blood is a { theme worthy of a great poem, ( and all that I have seen written up- ' on it is as nothing to the truth that 1 lies hid?hid to all save the eye that ' lias seen it all?behind those common ' words. I would not if T could, my x young friend, nor could I if T would, 1 produce in your mind the feeling ( awakened in mine by the tragedies I I witness: and to approach as near this v as possible is the end of the literary s artist, hook for no such effort now. ^ A touch here and touch there, and v memory would hurry from those ' scenes to seek relief in atmosphere of 1 some treasured past while hope J1 catches a breath of a peaceful future. ^ 1 have a brother in the 4th Texas " regiment, under Jackson, and I have s not seen that brother in fifteen years. He is an old man?past fifty?and :I very gray. < Friday's tornado of battle at Cold (1 Harbor, on Gaines's Farm, had swept e over our heads. I. had sunk down when s the signal for rest was given in the ' line ot 'battle as we were, too weary j* to unbuckle any of my trappings. ' With gun in hand I slept a brokon 11 sleep of the battlefield, drenched as X was in perspiration, fasting for ov- 10 er a day, and almost covered with 1 mud and dust. Momently came from s the 'plain around us, imperfectly and- a ible in that troubled slumber, the deep jroan of pu'reing paan-wrung of . some triend or foe or?brother.- Ip ' various directions over the field ' passed, passing and recrossing each t other, many delights of the infirm- 1 mary corps and the ambulance corps 11 seeking the wounded. The cautious hail and the low reply barely broke ? the horrid silence. o Morning came at length with its ?' peculiar train of things to shudder t at: but let us pass that, and with ] broad daylight look over the fiehl of yesterday's agony. a \ finpelled by a feeling I could not i control, though exhausted by such la- ?' bor as I lia<l undergone and almost * prostrated by a chill during the ?> night 1 strolled over the field of gore s after 1 had eaten a cracker and a bit t of bacon. The area of the field is at rl least five square miles, partly plain f and partly woods. No burial had yet li been made. (Here an order to strike e tent and march arrested my pen and ?i closed my knapsack upon your letter a till this the 14th of August, at which z time IJ resume.) In the shrubbery f swe_pj<'-(nd a few of our own men ly- r S'? ,,c and there stark and still: t roTC) ;gan to ascend the rising plain, v T?* our poor men thick and fear- 1, the ?uigled with cannon shot and i triet JAJg at long range. Next up- 5" trict J>w lay the blue-vested reg- c torneyfthe score in lines, as fire u Standi* from our side had been I' b'<'d into them during their adnce. To the left, over five or six f /res, lay the Zouaves?the dead and \ Je mangled?all over the plain. v /I'lie scenic elVect of their blue jack- J rets and red trousers (a la Turque) <1 , with the fez, a red skullcap, was rath- t] . cr ornamental. But a wild, deep, a new feeling of (maybe it was re- n venue) anger maddened my eye and s < stifled my breathing. For hours T f l|j walked often alone among them y v ? , throu'.'h wood and field and looked li upon the faces of many dead enc- v wMm mies and conversed with many of the <> Mf/ wounded: looked upon many friendly t H| faces cold i;i death there and hideous p 111 sW'id pallor. 1 their sought trace the course of some sped troops the Jiousianians and Texan Moth fought well, both *di( well. \ou know why passed the route of the Te; m charge?+\ charge as fatal a., Ba ilk lava. I walked slowly and lookt (may Hod spare all other brolhe li'oni such a feciin? !) carefully j very gray corpse. Many were shod !;-'y slaughtered. 1 could see noi lice him. Hope again came to m nul I returned to our bivouac som low elated, yet crushed in heart. \ou have not yet caught the fain Jxt glimpse of (hemost disgusting' ho oi of a battlelield?to me. You wi mule (as 1 would have done lai t.viie) when ] tell you thai horror lie smell?(he smell of blood. A ma: tied corpse is discoverable in (h lV:,y a <Hs(ance of ni;iny yards. T| 'dor comes gradually yet surely. V, it down to rest hoping to be out < t for a respite; but the same dea a uglily, penetrating odor steals ov< ' on, and you experience the ove >o we ring sense of blood, look aroum ?"d there it is in the weeds there jm >t your feet. One third of his brew nay be shot away; but he stares } >'ou turn upon him, and ?! In the afternoon of the same da walked partly over the same fieli >ur dead had been buried, and onl nir iocs lay there and fewer of then The severest fire wc received w. 'II .Monday evening in the . iVillis 's Church. I lore 1 ad vane.' vilh the regiment as usual in the lac ls a l)n?ik '"'''is lliat dropped oi nen every few yards. This subside ?i* a while and darkness thickene J round us. We were ordered to li town, and remained thus for sever; ninnies; meanwhile the bullets revn |d. Some Yankees advanced to tli out of our regiment inquiring ft he colonel and informing Colonel K v o was 11,011 oil our light in cont'd 'nee with General (J., that thev wan (<l. Imn up there " to see about son msoiiers. Colonel E.asked, "Wh >anis nic.' and was disregarding tli luminous and going on to carry oi eneral G's. insl rnd ions. TTis ordc vas "T" your feet. bv the rigl Heie, just as the ordi o rise was heard over the Held an is the unknown individual had tini o get out of range, there came int >ur faces a fire from the frontuc i a fiie as only a full regimen an pour upon one spot, ft came ju? is we rose?just after?and some la own again to rise no more. The fii lid nol have our height perfect!' se certainly half our number ha lept forever there. Thev calculate or our rising and allowed too mud few inches too much, and that fei riches saved a hundred lives. Abov is flashed and popped the explosiv alls wherever they hit a tree or sku ?r a bone! These infernal balls e? >l?de whenever they hit any bar ubstance; hence they rarely inflic slight wound?it is miss or'death. In receiving a fire in that way on ks oI death remotely in one sens* eeause there are enough practicj lungs to do that absorb the attei ion; yet one remembers momentl hat he may fall next step. This r< a em bra nee has nothing to do wit raverv; for when a man has mad ip his mind to advance to do bis dut ven t<> death, he never for one !reams of changing his plans?hasn inie. I'ndcr tlujt most blastin reath ot lead our regiment moved .'i oolly as the nature of the groun nd the darkness would permit. An n the most trying charges of Fr lay, when universal Death seeme weeping whole armies before bin ur lives were always good. I neve aw at any time three men waver i lie whole regiment in which T wa: 'he.v were never confused, and onl m/.zled when they could not possibl ear the words of command on ac ount of the incessency of cannon fii ver head, the bursting of shell niong I hem. and the constant zij ip-zip of the leaden balls at thei ecI or the low groan of #ome eon ade who sinks upon his face to di< he quick, spasmodic "O" of tli outh or the heavier "0 God !" deej V gushing from the soul that feel js lease on life is over that momen much of the steadiness mo ould hardly be said of all the reg ilenls jm our hrignde. yet none di fss than I heir duty and none more. 0;:e v'( 'w more I must yiw von hi ore I ienve these experiences. f; on would scarcely anticipate ] va? << > Wednesday morning. 30t "Iv "l>on the I11 lell.'ld of Moi I.'-.' at Willis's (''lurch. or ratlir K'ar it. :I ?- 11used for |jni s a hospital for tin- wounded. Wee if-iav in rniny in the pelting rain ought the hospital to get some it ormation lor some one. The cot tay 'as jammed with mangled men, am ?ss, legless, and bleeding ' Th founded of Tuesday were also jm oming in. Around upon the fence: he ground. I he garden, tin- ash hoi er board everywhere around la lo ik'iul men, perhaps thirty (men d til since ?broiiyrlit in), and outside s. were yet many mangled lying in ?d rain upon the grass, sometimes pi I ly in the water puddles. One cor; x- nearly stripped lay stark, gliast, i 1- staring with leaden eyes up at in d eyes into which was beating the c rs rain, eyes that never winked or w it ered in their stony stare right al <- iu their agony of physical pain, e ie from which the-life had fled in si e, haste that they could not close, fr e- \!iich the soul had I !?"l iim'i! the* geon's knife, llis leg had been s t_ through the kness,,..lglfxa?i FT 'c' through the knee, and an aiupntat II above, midway the thigh, had kil ijr him. They had left him lying 111 i's upon the plank just as lie had di and had dropped the limb at his jj. maining loot. The whole express 1C. was one of agony and despair: ,u wrench back of the shoulders. ,C clenched fingers?all. 1 was held (1 amazement by hits (iorgon horror ;i. it stared at me so?and was insti tivelv bearing away from it wliei [1 trod upon the extremity of the lit w.hich was lower than 1 cnlculut Remember, 1 could not look al is limb or at ni.v feet, for my gaze \ absolutely chained by such a stu I was l.iokiug at those dead, impl ; ing eyes into which the pitiless r l'j was heating incessantly, and il Lv j did not wink, lint stared?absolut n. glared?at me. The limb felt to ls J fool touch like a touch of pick tl pork, hard and yet fleshy. In inteusest moments of feeling I lie o ( make a;?y sound neither a ,uroauo u> cr\. Mere I only leaped with my I ,?l | muscular might away, and lighted .,1 I er in the weeds upon a heap?yes ie 1 pile a foot hiuh?of arms, lo ilfhands, feet, and fragments of the | all these piled up with a corpse ie two, these white and slippery v, >r cold in the grass and puddles of w er?some of the water was red. N [ _ I was fully restored from the inf t_ ence of those eyes, and scramb ie! from the piled mass of fragmei 10 but not without difficulty, for dc ie flesh in water is very slippery. A it .Vl'< I (1'<1 not <111itfall over all >r ' t hem. it , On Tuesday evening. 2d July, r had one of the most magnil'iet <1 , spectacles I ever saw?a great bat ie I at night. We were within range o i shot and shell, and the danger (i -I shell overor among us every hjilf in it j lite maybe) was just enough to kc 't | one's blood up. We did not fire y gun, but were held as reserves tl e evening, and had full leisure for s V, ing. As the battle raged, yet fe d ful and unbroken night stole dar] d upon the scene and wrapped Malv< 1, Hill in a shroud. Fv-erv flash x every gun flared up against the se in second a 1 succession?nay, ten ] e second might often be counted! A 11 the shells could be traced by a fa i- streak over head; and when t! d burst, the pyrotechnic splendor v it grander than any view of "I j lightning's red glare painting hell el the skv." These when near us w< uncomfortable, but grand. And w jl all this the roar, the din, the tlium i- of seventy cannon played with el y trie speed, and a mellower peal j- musketry rolling sometimes throu Il minutes so incessant as to seem < Ie unbroken roar. And with all t v the moral significance of such wo e the lifo-and-death struggle kno 't and felt to be there, the majesty 0- will, the contempt of death, the r< ls ally of hate, the infinity of distai d between the parties?all these thit d heightened the special touches of I i_ scene as a material picture. Ma jo? d murder! The shroud on Malvern I covered three thousand corpses, 'r 1 close this brief note to you. n young frined. in our bivouac, on I ?. main road between (Jordonsville a y Orange ('. H. The battle of 0c< y Huii last Saturday, fith August, v 1- within five miles of Culpepper C. e (Fairfax), beyond the K'apidan (1 Is to strip and wade the river), and v a hearty Stonewall blow dealt ii) ir Pope by Jackson, who then fell bj i- ready for anything else. The one 2. lost at least two thousand; we 1 o less than one thousand. T conver >- with many prisoners, saw three hi Is died and seventy five unwouiK t. ones, while I was in Orange. 1 n are called Jackson's foot caval i- Our brigade was not in the battle d Cedar Run. T saw Jackson rare Saw some line specimens of Virgi - ladies a few days ago. Dress is ii nored among us. We enter fine p ft lors with the coarsest of clothes, h plainest of shoes, and (O, Chest field and O, llrunimel!) the dirt '' of shirts. "We sometimes do not 10 j our baggage for ten days. How el j Such is the camp and such is Ja i- son's foot cavalry. c j. w. n Three days ago T received offio notice, of the death of mv brother p the battle of Friday, the 27tli June, on dailies's Farm. I clo.<e ' y l">th of August, 1802. h'I CHEAP RATES l too 1 the | \ ia Southern Railway. Jamestown irt-; Tor-Cnutennial Exposition, Norfolk, l>se , Va. e j account- of the above occasion old ' ^'le instructions will gov1 c,n ",e sale of round trip tickets to me 1 Norfolk, Va. from Ntwberry, S. C. yes I Season ticket?$19.55. This ticket icli I w'" So'(l daily April 19th to and o,? j "'eluding November 30th, 1007, final ,r j date to leave Norflok returning Dehot ! cftm,)er 15th, 1907. \TN j ?0 day ticket?$16.30. This ticket ion | be Fold daily April 19th to and led ; including November 30th, 1907, final 1 (.,v j date to leave Norfolk returning sixed,' '.v (M) days from (Kite of sale and ^ re- bited than december 15th, 1907. ion Fifteen day ticket?$14.30. This the! ticket hv)l be sold daily April 19th t the J to and including November 30th, r in | .1907. final date to leave Norfolk res J turni"^ fifteen (15) days from date no- of sale. I I Coach Kxcusion ticket?$8.55. This ^ II ticket is ni t god in sleeping, PullC"* | man, or Parlor cars, and will be sold tho i 0)| Tuesday of each week during per- ' vns j iod of the exposition, final date to < 1101 ; leave Norfolk returning ten (10) or~ days from date of sale. { illll lr, . . ,! * routes, stop-overs, etc., write \ ,.lv "i: call on us. V* i'''' ' We p ^ 300 Doz. IV1 1 "taj New Goods, Latest Style OW I ViV- Every Shirt bears eviden op i O. K ;rn of . The % To secure B lKl ????????________ int toy ,-as the in pre i Belting >110 his rk. wu | ? ngir t ho :tio rin i T rir ind lar ras II. 1:1(1 ! ras ion | ick 111V ost - Rubber Hose, lo.l Full Line >lv. nia ? Glassware t ho or-inl i 1 ! iii ! of i1k> i 1 We Lend Buy H We provide easy term We enable borrowers n Monthly Installments, illowed to meet obligate It is cheaper than payii o save money to buy a \ Contract. If you want to save mc ake a Security Contract Call on A. J. Gibson, A Treasurer, at office, cori streets, next door to Co| SECURITY LOAN AN[ 3ST;eej"V S BETTER TI ?ut in evidence and on s ten's Fine Dn s, Direct from the Fac dented price of only ce that^there is no bett for the money. L ETT1 Fair and Square Deale ARGAINS demands qui r le nmingi Pipe F Lawn Sprin! of General ] 3, Crockery an - lJULAriCi. , I Money ) omes! s of payment. to accumulate a fund on which interest is 3ns at maturity. ig rent. If you want lome take a Security >ney for any purpose . It pays. sstant Secretary and ler Boyce and Adams eland Brothers. I INVESTMENT CO. "STBERIiY, S. O. HAN TALK, ale bss Shirts. ;tory at the unpreceer shirt under the sun ENR, r. ck action! sand 'ittine:. klers and a Hardware, id China. ire Co.