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1I was witness to events of a less peaceful character. One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of
2stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely
3contending with one another. Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled on the chips
4incessantly. Looking farther, I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not
5a duellum, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two
6red ones to one black. The legions of these Myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my wood-yard, and the ground
7was already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black. It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed, the
8only battle-field I ever trod while the battle was raging; internecine war; the red republicans on the one hand, and the
9black imperialists on the other. On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet without any noise that I could
10hear, and human soldiers never fought so resolutely. I watched a couple that were fast locked in each other's embraces,
11in a little sunny valley amid the chips, now at noon-day prepared to fight till the sun went down, or life went out. The
12smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to his adversary's front, and through all the tumblings on that
13field never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of his feelers near the root, having already caused the other to go by
14the board; while the stronger black one dashed him from side to side, and, as I saw on looking nearer, had already
15divested him of several of his members. They fought with more pertinacity than bull-dogs. Neither manifested the least
16disposition to retreat. It was evident that their battle-cry was Conquer or die. In the mean while there came along a
17single red ant on the hill-side of this valley, evidently full of excitement, who either had despatched his foe, or had
18not yet taken part in the battle; probably the latter, for he had lost none of his limbs; whose mother had charged him
19to return with his shield or upon it. Or perchance he was some Achilles, who had nourished his wrath apart, and had now
20come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus. He saw this unequal combat from afar,--for the blacks were nearly twice the size
21of the red,--he drew near with rapid pace till he stood on his guard within half an inch of the combatants; then,
22watching his opportunity, he sprang upon the black warrior, and commenced his operations near the root of his right
23fore-leg, leaving the foe to select among his own members; and so there were three united for life, as if a new kind of
24attraction had been invented which put all other locks and cements to shame. I should not have wondered by this time to
25find that they had their respective musical bands stationed on some eminent chip, and playing their national airs the
26while, to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants. I was myself excited somewhat even as if they had been men.
27The more you think of it, the less the difference. And certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at
28least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment's comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in
29it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed. For numbers and for carnage it was an Austerlitz or Dresden. Concord
30Fight! Two killed on the patriots' side, and Luther Blanchard wounded! Why here every ant was a Buttrick,--"Fire! for
31God's sake fire!"--and thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer. There was not one hireling there. I have no doubt
32that it was a principle they fought for, as much as our ancestors, and not to avoid a three-penny tax on their tea; and
33the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of the battle of Bunker
34Hill, at least. I took up the chip on which the three I have particularly described were struggling, carried it into my
35house, and placed it under a tumbler on my window-sill, in order to see the issue. Holding a microscope to the
36first-mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously gnawing at the near fore-leg of his enemy, having severed
37his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black
38warrior, whose breastplate was apparently too thick for him to pierce; and the dark carbuncles of the sufferer's eyes
39shone with ferocity such as war only could excite. They struggled half an hour longer under the tumbler, and when I
40looked again the black soldier had severed the heads of his foes from their bodies, and the still living heads were
41hanging on either side of him like ghastly trophies at his saddle-bow, still apparently as firmly fastened as ever, and
42he was endeavoring with feeble struggles, being without feelers and with only the remnant of a leg, and I know not how
43many other wounds, to divest himself of them; which at length, after half an hour more, he accomplished. I raised the
44glass, and he went off over the window-sill in that crippled state. Whether he finally survived that combat, and spent
45the remainder of his days in some Hotel des Invalides, I do not know; but I thought that his industry would not be worth
46much thereafter. I never learned which party was victorious, nor the cause of the war; but I felt for the rest of that
47day as if I had had my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle, the ferocity and carnage, of a human
48battle before my door. Kirby and Spence tell us that the battles of ants have long been celebrated and the date of them
49recorded, though they say that Huber is the only modern author who appears to have witnessed them. "Æneas Sylvius," say
50they, "after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with great obstinacy by a great and small species on
51the trunk of a pear tree," adds that "'This action was fought in the pontificate of Eugenius the Fourth, in the presence
52of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an eminent lawyer, who related the whole history of the battle with the greatest fidelity.' A
53similar engagement between great and small ants is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in which the small ones, being victorious,
54are said to have buried the bodies of their own soldiers, but left those of their giant enemies a prey to the birds.
55This event happened previous to the expulsion of the tyrant Christiern the Second from Sweden." The battle which I
56witnessed took place in the Presidency of Polk, five years before the passage of Webster's Fugitive-Slave Bill.
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