"It
became necessary to burn hundreds of wagons. At intervals the enemy's
cavalry dashed in and struck the interminable train, here or there,
capturing and burning dozens on dozens of wagons. Hundreds of men
dropped from exhaustion, and thousands let fall their muskets from
inability to carry them any farther. The scenes were of a nature which
can be apprehended in its vivid reality only by men who are thoroughly
familiar with the harrowing details of war. Behind, and on either
flank, a ubiquitous and increasingly adventurous enemy; every mud-hole
and every rise in the road choked with blazing wagons; the air filled
with the deafening reports of ammunition exploding, and shell bursting
when touched by the flames; dense columns of smoke ascending to heaven
from the burning and exploding vehicles; exhausted men, worn-out mules
and horses, lying down side by side; gaunt famine glaring hopelessly
from sunken lack-lustre eyes; dead mules, dead horses, dead men,
everywhere; death many times welcomed as God's blessing in
disguise--who can wonder if many hearts tried in the fiery furnace of
four unparalleled years, and never hitherto found wanting, should have
quailed in presence of starvation, fatigue, sleeplessness, misery,
un-intermitted for five or six days, and culminating in
hopelessness?"[1]
[Footnote 1: The Hon.
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