Ole Miss
Major
Forum Host
Silver Patron
Regtl. Staff Shiloh 2020
Asst. Regtl. QM Stones River / Franklin 2022
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2017
- Location
- North Mississippi
Captain Andrew Hickenlooper, commander of 5th Ohio Independent Battery, at the end of day 2 of the Battle of Shiloh was able to retake his encampment that he lost early in the morning of the 1st day. After all of the unimaginable horrors he witnessed, he found the following scene in his recovered tent:
"In my own tent, left standing, had been placed by rebel hands two desperately wounded soldiers, one a
Confederate and the other a Union boy. Side by side they had lain throughout that terrible night, but with the first blush of morn death had come to the relief of one, leaving to still suffer a youthful soldier, clad in blue. As I raised his head and placed my canteen to his parched and bloodless lips, the last faint rays of the setting sun came struggling through the pines and illumined, as with a halo, the face of that dying lad. With silence unbroken, save by the cries and groans of the wounded, came fainter and fainter the labored breath, and more feeble the clasp of that little hand. Suddenly arousing himself, in whispered accents he said : " Tell mother where you found me, on the front line." Vainly did I try to catch from his parting lips the cherished name of that mother. Gently I laid him down, and regretfully left him to a soldier's burial and a nameless grave.
Yet what were his brief sufferings compared to that mother's, who, ignorant of his sad fate, for months, and per haps for years, waited, wept, watched and prayed for his safe return to that distant Northern home, which never again would be cheered by his ringing laugh or boyish pranks.
From this sad scene I passed out into the chilly night, which had woven a misty veil of sulphurous smoke. The chilling dampness prompted me to take the exercise, and charity the labor, of extending a helping hand to some who might still be saved by timely succor; but all too broad the field and great the task. With nerves unstrung and physical endurance at an end, I turned again to find comfort, even in such companionship, and sank to rest — the living with the dead."
I am absolutely amazed by man's ability to find tenderness and love in the midst of war.
Regards
David
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020050191&view=1up&seq=443&q1=sulphurous
Pages 430-431
"In my own tent, left standing, had been placed by rebel hands two desperately wounded soldiers, one a
Confederate and the other a Union boy. Side by side they had lain throughout that terrible night, but with the first blush of morn death had come to the relief of one, leaving to still suffer a youthful soldier, clad in blue. As I raised his head and placed my canteen to his parched and bloodless lips, the last faint rays of the setting sun came struggling through the pines and illumined, as with a halo, the face of that dying lad. With silence unbroken, save by the cries and groans of the wounded, came fainter and fainter the labored breath, and more feeble the clasp of that little hand. Suddenly arousing himself, in whispered accents he said : " Tell mother where you found me, on the front line." Vainly did I try to catch from his parting lips the cherished name of that mother. Gently I laid him down, and regretfully left him to a soldier's burial and a nameless grave.
Yet what were his brief sufferings compared to that mother's, who, ignorant of his sad fate, for months, and per haps for years, waited, wept, watched and prayed for his safe return to that distant Northern home, which never again would be cheered by his ringing laugh or boyish pranks.
From this sad scene I passed out into the chilly night, which had woven a misty veil of sulphurous smoke. The chilling dampness prompted me to take the exercise, and charity the labor, of extending a helping hand to some who might still be saved by timely succor; but all too broad the field and great the task. With nerves unstrung and physical endurance at an end, I turned again to find comfort, even in such companionship, and sank to rest — the living with the dead."
I am absolutely amazed by man's ability to find tenderness and love in the midst of war.
Regards
David
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020050191&view=1up&seq=443&q1=sulphurous
Pages 430-431