The Johnstown Horror!!!: or, Valley of Death, being A Complete and Thrilling Account; of the Awful Floods and Their Appalling RuinWalker, James Herbert
History
The Johnstown Horror!!!: or, Valley of Death, being A Complete and Thrilling Account; of the Awful Floods and Their Appalling Ruin
The ruined city lies to-night within a girdle of steel--the bayonets of
the 14th regiment. The militia has captured Johnstown and to-night over
the desolate plain where the city proper stood, through the towering
wrecks and by the river passes, marches the patrol, crying "Halt" and
challenging vagabonds, vandals and ghouls, who cross their path. General
Hastings, being the highest officer in rank, is in command, and when the
survivors of the flood awake to-morrow morning, when the weary pickets
are relieved at sunrise a brigade headquarters will be fully established
on the slope of Prospect Hill overlooking the hundreds of white tents of
the regiments that will lie down below by the German Catholic Church.
[Illustration: ENCAMPMENT OF RELIEF PARTIES.]
First this afternoon arrived Governor Beaver's staff, mostly by way of
Harper's Ferry on the Baltimore and Ohio. All the officers in brilliant
uniform and trappings reported to General Hastings. They found their
commander in a slouch hat, a rough-looking cutaway and rubber boots.
The 14th Regiment, reinforced this morning until it is now 600 strong,
is still camped in freight cars beyond the depot, opposite the late city
proper. Space is being rapidly cleared for its tents, however, over by
the German Catholic Church, and near the ruins of the Irish Catholic
Church, which was on fire when the deluge came.
Early this morning the 14th Regiment went into service, but it was a
volunteer service of two young officers and three privates when at noon
they dragged gently from the rushing Conemaugh the body of a beautiful
young girl. She was tenderly borne through the lines by regimental
headquarters to the church house morgue, while the sentinels stood aside
with their bayonets and the corporal ordered "Halt!" Guards were placed
at the Johnstown stations and all the morgues.
Marched out of Camp.
During the day many people of questionable character, indeed all who
were challenged and could not satisfactorily explain their business
here, had a military escort to the city limits, where they were ordered
not to return. Every now and then two of the National Guard could be
seen marching along with a rough fellow between them to the post where
such beings are made exiles from the scene of desolation. To-night the
picket lines stretch from brigade headquarters down Prospect Hill past
General Hastings' quarters even to the river. The patrol across the
river is keeping sharp vigilance in town. At the eastern end of the
Pennsylvania Railroad's stone bridge you must stop and give the
countersign. If you don't no man can answer for your safety.
A Lieutenant's Disgrace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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