e drummer-boy attracted my attention by saying, in a
childish voice, as he held up his left arm from which the hand had been severed,
while he held his drum with the other:
"Will you do as much as that for
"Yes, my little fellow, if I
"Well, I'd do more," and he held
up his right hand; "but then I would have no hands at all to work for mother,
and father was killed at Antietam."
I should suppose, from the little
fellow's appearance, he was not over twelve or thirteen years of age; he was a
young hero, but a thorough one—a child worthy of the Republic, worthy of its
inspirations, worthy of the Future in which, maybe, he shall sit crowned with
Hardly had my notice been
withdrawn from the drummer-boy when Corporal S— turned toward me, and exclaimed,
"Look there!" I looked in the direction indicated, and beheld a sight at once so
horrible and sublime that it will ever form a living picture in my memory. A
strong, stalwart fellow, with the cheverons of a sergeant on his arm, ragged and
torn, was limping slowly toward us. The shoe on his right foot was covered with
blood, and a large rent in his pantaloons, just above the knee, from which the
blood was also trickling, solved the question of the location of his wound. He
was hatless, his hair was disordered, his face and hands were begrimed with
smoke and powder, and he looked altogether maniac-like and exhausted. But he had
his colors with him! His regiment, or the greater part of it, had been either
killed or captured; he had lost his colors once, and was afterward captured
himself. He watched his opportunity, killed the rebel who held his flag, and
escaped with it safely into our lines. Ought not the name of one so brave as he
to be chiseled in monumental marble, that the ages as they go may read it and
Night came at last—the next day
passed—and the evening of the fourth settled down upon us, bringing to some of
us a most disagreeable duty. Shortly after dark, as I was about to lie down in
my blanket for a nap, I was directed to take charge of a squad of men and report
to a superior officer for orders. Obeying, I was soon after ordered to proceed
to the wood immediately in our front and there commence to bury the dead—to bury
indiscriminately both the enemy's and our own; to do all in my power to obtain
information likely to lead to the identification of the bodies, and to remain
out until midnight. We procured a lantern, armed the men with shovels and picks,
and started out.
Gaining the edge of the wood
after wading some distance through a deep marsh, I lighted my lantern, and its
first ray fell upon the bloated face of a rebel lieutenant. Either he had died
systematically or some friend had placed him in the position in which we found
him, for he was lying flat on his back with his arms folded closely across his
breast, and his lips tightly compressed. But, nicely as he lay, he must be
buried. At the edge of the wood we found a soft strip of land—elsewhere it was a
rocky soil—and here we determined the rebel should have his last resting-place.
The men found a piece of candle in the dead man's haversack, lighted it, and
went to work upon the grave. Meanwhile I passed into the woods to discover other
bodies. I found three of our men, but, as far as I went, could see no more of
the enemy's dead. I came back; the men had finished the grave. We procured two
rails, placed one under the shoulders and the other under the legs, just below
the knees, and thus the body of the rebel was laid away in the ground to await
the day of reckoning, in whose glare all of us must stand.
I told the men to dig a grave a
little farther on for three. They went at it, while I proceeded to examine the
bodies I had discovered. The first was that of a corporal belonging to the First
Division of the Fifth Corps. His right hand was placed close to his mouth, and
tightly clenched; a torn cartridge lay at his side, the end which he had bitten
off so tightly held in his teeth that it was impossible to withdraw it. His
pocket had been cut out, his shoes and stockings stripped off, and nothing
whatever was to