88 CHICKAMAUGA. 



" Why is this caUed Bloody Pond ? " I 

 asked. 



"Why?" 



"Yes." 



" Why, there were a lot of soldiers killed 

 here in the war, and the pond got bloody." 



The granite tower in the shadow of which 

 I had rested awhile ago was General 

 Wilder's monument, they said. His head- 

 quarters were there. Then they passed on 

 down the track out of sight, and all was 

 silent once more, till a chickadee gave out 

 his sweet and quiet song just behind me, and 

 a second swallow dropped upon the water's 

 edge. The pond was of the smallest and 

 meanest, muddy shore, muddy bottom, 

 and muddy water; but men fought and 

 died for it in those awful September days 

 of heat and dust and thirst. There was no 

 better place on the field, perhaps, in which 

 to realize the horrors of the battle, and I 

 was glad to have the chickadee's voice the 

 last sound in my ears as I turned away. 



