blankets, haversacks and canteens, were scattered thickly over the
field; and hundreds of slain horses, bloated and with feet turned toward
the sky, added to the horror of the scene.

While the excitement of battle lasts, and we hear the roar of artillery,
and the shock of contending armies, the terrible reality of the occasion
hardly presents itself to our minds, and it is only when we survey the
bloody field, strewed with the mangled, lifeless remains of friend and
foe, or walk through the hospitals, where the unfortunate victims of
battle writhe in the agony of their wounds, that we realize the terrible
nature of a great battle.

Sickening as is the sight of the battle-field, the scenes about the
hospitals are worse, except to those who are actually engaged in
ministering to the relief of the wounded. To these the excitement and
labor incident to their duties, crowd out the thoughts of the ghastly
surroundings. They see only so many demands upon them for assistance,
and have no time to indulge in sentimental emotions.

Here in the rear of the army for miles, was a succession of hospitals.
Every house, and barn, and haystack, formed the nucleus of a hospital,
where men, shot through the head, through the limbs, through the body;
with every conceivable variety of wounds, lay groaning in anguish.
Surgeons toiled day and night with never lagging zeal to relieve these
sufferings, but all their labor could only afford slight relief. The
labors of medical officers after a great battle are immense, and there
is no respite from their toils so long as a wounded man remains uncared
for. While others find repose from the fatigues of battle in sleep, the
surgeons are still at work; there is no sleep for them so long as work
remains to be done.

The rebel army had fallen back; yet a skirmish line had been left to
cover the movement. At length even this suddenly disappeared, and,
firing a few solid shots, as a parting salute, the enemy took a final
leave of the field. Our forces were ordered on. We passed over the scene
of carnage, where hundreds of dead lay still unburied; and pioneers were
on every part of the field throwing the mangled, disfigured forms into
shallow graves. Along the roadsides, under the fences, and where the
confederate hospitals had been, still these gory objects met our view.
We reached Sharpsburgh, and here the evidences of the terrible conflict
were to be seen everywhere. Houses riddled by shells and b