Or perchance one line or the other overpowered gives way,
And the contest is ended, the victors win the day.
The vanquished sometimes eager to be freed
Run for their lives in a disgraceful stampede.
Battle Fields.—Nature in some places has provided spots of ground that answer the purpose of belligerent armies where one line has the advantage of protection or shelter from the onslaughts of the other. Where grounds have been selected not affording safe protection against the invading force, soldiers are subjected to hard work throwing up breastworks, digging intrenchments or placing abatis to entangle the advancing army so as to detain it and shoot down the soldiers while extricating themselves from the entanglement. Every device or subterfuge that the fertile brain or imagination of man can discover or invent is called into requisition to give an advantage considered honorable in war. Sometimes though contending armies meet in open field in plain view of each other and fight to the finish and retire from the field leaving there a harrowing scene of suffering and destruction. Sometimes soldiers engage in hand to hand encounters, display physical force, power of endurance, and their expertness in handling the weapons of warfare, sustained by indomitable courage and stubborn willpower.
After the Battle.—The heat and excitement of the battle having subsided and the smoke cleared away, the battlefield presents a harrowing scene that beggars description. The grim monster death having done its terrible work leaves its impress on the faces of its unfortunate victims. Passion, determination and conflicting emotions plainly stamped on the faces of the victims now wrapt in the cold embrace of death.
After the battle is over a survey of the field
Will melt a heart as hard as steel;
The wounded with heartrending screams and moans
And pitiful calls for loved ones at home,