CHAPTER X

The following morning our burial parties were at work, when a man from a
Michigan regiment came and asked me if I would help him look for some of
his comrades in a wheat field; the wheat being about three feet high it
was not easy to notice a body in it unless one stumbled right on it. In
a few minutes he called out that he had found one and then he said he
had another. As the burial party was digging a trench on the ridge just
beyond, I suggested that he stay where he was to mark the location and I
would ride over and get some of the citizens, whom we noticed plundering
the battle-field of horse equipments, to help carry the bodies over so
they might be buried. I rode up to two or three men who had harness,
saddles, and horse equipments in their possession and told them to drop
them and come over to help me carry the bodies that we might bury them,
as we had to move on shortly. They were a type of Pennsylvania Dutchmen
that lived in that county, who seemed utterly indifferent to the war and
anything pertaining to it, beyond securing such spoils as they got on
the battle-field. They at once demurred and said they had no time,
whereupon I flew into a rage at their heartless conduct, drew my sabre,
and threatened to sabre them if they did not come at once. They then
sulkily complied. When we got back to where the bodies were I told them
to take some fence rails and carry them as though they were a stretcher.
We put the bodies across the rails, the men holding the ends of them.
When we had two bodies on this improvised stretcher I discovered a
Confederate soldier, a sergeant, with a bushy head of red hair and a red
beard. A sabre had split open the top of his head so you could put your
hand in the gash. I suggested that he be cared for too, and when we
attempted to put him on the stretcher they complained that they could
not carry the load. Then I rode after some more citizens whom I also
compelled to come over and help us. With their assistance we succeeded
in getting a number of bodies up to where the burial party was at work.
When I told my Michigan comrade of my experience with these men he
became so angry that I thought he would shoot them then and there.

The General then moved into the town of Gettysburg, where, in contrast
to the heartless conduct of these men, we found patriotic women at work
in every house pulling lint and doing what they could to alleviate the
suffering that was all around them