I seen such abundant evidences of a
terrific fire of cannon and musketry as upon this. Along the enemy's
position, where our shells and shot had struck during the cannonade of
the third, the trees had cast their trunks and branches as if they had
been icicles shaken by a blast. And graves of the Rebel's making, and
dead horses and scattered accoutrements, showed that other things
besides trees had been struck by our projectiles. I must say that,
having seen the work of their guns upon the same occasion, I was
gratified to see these things. Along the slope of Culp's Hill, in front
of the position of the 12th, and the 1st Division of the 1st Corps, the
trees were almost literally peeled, from the ground up some fifteen or
twenty feet, so thick upon them were the scars the bullets had made.
Upon a single tree, not over a foot and a half in diameter, I actually
counted as many as two hundred and fifty bullet marks. The ground was
covered by the little twigs that had been cut off by the hailstorm of
lead. Such were the evidences of the storm under which Ewell's bold
Rebels assaulted our breastworks on the night of the 2d and the morning
of the 3d of July. And those works looked formidable, zig-zaging along
these rocky crests, even now when not a musket was behind them. What
madness on the part of the enemy to have attacked them! All along
through these bullet-stormed woods were interspersed little patches of
fresh earth, raised a foot or so above the surrounding ground. Some were
very near the front of the works; and near by, upon a tree whose bark
had been smoothed by an axe, written in red chalk would be the words,
not in fine handwriting, "75 Rebels buried here." "54 Rebs. there." And
so on. Such was the burial and such the epitaph of many of those famous
men, once led by the mighty Stonewall Jackson. Oh, this damned rebellion
will make brutes of us all, if it is not soon quelled! Our own men were
buried in graves, not trenches; and upon a piece of board, or stave of a
barrel, or bit of cracker box, placed at the head, were neatly cut or
penciled the name and regiment of the one buried in such. This practice
was general, but of course there must be some exceptions, for sometimes
the cannon's load had not left enough of a man to recognize or name. The
reasons here for the more careful interment of our own dead than such as
was given to the dead of the enemy are obvious and I think satisfactory.
Our own dead were usually bur