rt
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 be found on his person by which to identify him except the corps
mark on his cap.
About two feet from him lay a
private, hatless, and stripped of shoes and stockings also. His pockets had not
been removed. I examined them, and found in his pantaloons a golden locket, with
the picture of a fair young woman therein, and in his breast coat-pocket a
daguerreotype of the same person, with a card on which was a lady's address. I
have since ascertained it was that of his wife.
The third body was that of a
first lieutenant of artillery; and how he came there in the woods was a mystery
we could not solve. No battery was placed within five hundred yards of that
position, either right or left. But be that as it may, there the body was,
stripped of every thing in the shape of insignia except one shoulder-strap,
which hung by one end only. His little finger had evidently been cut off, as the
print of a large seal-ring could yet be seen upon it; and it is certain the
wound was not caused either by a Minie ball or a fragment of shell.
At length the grave was ready,
the three were buried, and again we passed on. As best we could we were making
our way in the dim light of the lantern, when suddenly I tripped, and extending
my arms in self-protection, my left hand came in contact with the cold forehead
of a corpse. My feet rested on another body, and my lantern was out. I felt for
a match. I had none. But presently some of the men came up; the lantern was
relighted, and the glare revealed a sight which I pray God my eyes may never
look upon again. The body upon which my hand had fallen was that of a corporal;
both legs were blown completely off. That over which I had stumbled was the body
of a private with one arm severed, not entirely off, at the shoulder. Two trees
of perhaps four inches diameter had been splintered, one about eight feet the
other five feet from the ground, and had fallen right where the bodies lay.
Within a circle of twenty feet from these trees I counted seventeen bodies, all,
alas! with blue jackets on. I ha