485 
appeared peculiarly interesting, as describing minutely what 
occurred in that field. The men seemed to have fled in the 
direction of their homes, and to have been exhausted by the 
length of their flight as they ascended the hill, the enemy in 
pursuit following close upon them. There these men fell, 
and decayed, and I was the first who had observed their 
relics, after thousands of years had passed away. I could not 
avoid feeling sympathy for them, though there remained no 
trace of human forms. The imperishable weapons which 
they had used, and the dress-fastenings they had worn, which 
lay before me, testified that they were killed in defence of 
their homes, and that the enemy had passed on in pursuit of 
their kinsmen, I knew not where ; but I felt confident that 
none of their friends had returned to bury them, or remove 
the implements which they must have highly valued : and it 
was evident their conquerors considered them of no value, for 
the reason I have given. 
In a paragraph which I cut out of a newspaper, copied 
from the American Washington Star, I observe how identical 
the mode of recognizing the place where men have fallen in 
battle may be of distant eras. Quartermaster -General 
Meigs was contemplating the removal of the remains of Union 
soldiers, and he remarked — “They lay together, friend and 
foe ; and a button or two, or a shred of blue or gray clothing, 
afforded an uncertain index of their politics.” — May, 1866. 
In a field on the left side of the old embankment, I found 
quite a line of dress- fastenings and weapons. On the other 
side of the road, which is on the old embankment, opposite 
Mr. Taylor’s farm-house, there had been a settlement, and 
there implements and weapons in considerable numbers, with 
dress-fastenings, lay in a straight narrow line through the 
field. These lines of relics seemed to indicate that a stand 
had been made here, and many were killed, but the continuing 
evidence of weapons thrown away shows it was ineffectual. 
