Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1883 — After the Battle of Gettysburg. [ARTICLE]

After the Battle of Gettysburg.

J. A. Walker. After the first day’s fight the writer was ordered to take a platoon of men and go over the field to bury the dead and care for the wounded. My first subject for burial was a young man of perhaps thirty years, who did not die suddenly. There was evidence of a struggle, and the tom fragments of letters lying around phowed he had a secret that he wished to die with him. But the broken pieces of an oldfashioned daguerreotype lying by his side gave me curiosity to learn his name. I tore open the old frame that held the picture he destroyed and found written on the pink paper inside my own family name,that of a young lady living at Warrenton, 8. C. Only her name and address were written in a feminine hand. I took the paper out and placed it in my pocket book, burying the dead soldier where he lay. On my return to Virginia I wrote the young Jady, inclosing the slip of paper and describing the bo ly. She replied in due time, giving the sad information her betrothal to the young man. It was her photograph he had destroyed. Our next was that of a Federal cavalryman,apparently dead, and who was wearing an elegant pair of boots. The guard under my command were scattered over half a mile of territory. I noticed a party of three or four assembled around this cavalryman', apparently undecided as to what to do. I soon learned that they were debating as to whether or not they should take the boots or bury them with him. At the moment of my joining them the squad were disputing over the spoils, when the matter was brought to a close by the dead cavalryman himself. He had heard what was said and in a sepulcharal voice asked that he be allowed a decent burial with his boots on. As he had to all appearances risen from the dead his request was unanimously granted. We sent him comfortably to the hospital and hope he is alive to-day. Our next work revealed to us a sight, if possible, more touching than anything war gives to us, the death of a little boy. He was dressed in tlje uniform of a cavalryman, and as he lay he was a dethroned statue of Appolo. Beautiful as a young god. with a face as white and clear as a girl’s, his right hand resting peacefully across his breast and his left holding his cap.