CXLVI
Headquarters Second N. H. V.,Point of Rocks, Va.,May 18, 1864.
Headquarters Second N. H. V.,Point of Rocks, Va.,May 18, 1864.
Headquarters Second N. H. V.,Point of Rocks, Va.,May 18, 1864.
Headquarters Second N. H. V.,
Point of Rocks, Va.,May 18, 1864.
THISmorning I received your letter, dated from Manchester. Yesterday I sent a letter off directed to New London, but as you have concluded not to go there I suppose your chances of getting it right off are not very good. So, to relieve your anxiety, I write again. Our date of discharge has at last been definitely settled, and you need not expect me before the 7th of June. That is General Butler’s fiat, which is law.
This army has had some fighting to do since it landed here. At this very moment the rebels are attacking a portion of our intrenched line not half a mile from where I am sitting, and there is a terrific uproar of cannon and musketry. A week ago the army went out on an expedition to stir up the rebels. They skirmished with them, drove them toward Fort Darling, and took the outer line of rifle-pits. I took the regimental mail up, and found the boys within five hundred yards of a large rebel fort, over which two big garrison flags were floating. They were behind a good log breastwork, and our skirmishers were well out in front, behind logs and stumps, popping away so industriously that the rebels were not working a single one of their cannon. I stayed as long as I could find any excuse, to distribute my mail and to watch the sport, then rode back to camp. The next morning, before I had rolled out of my blankets, I heard heavy firing up the river, and knew that a battle was on. It was a couple hours before I could get started with my mail. The road, after I had gone a piece, was full of wounded men on foot and ambulances loaded with mangled humanity. One driver told me he had in his wagon the body of Captain Platt, who was killed by a bullet in the head.
When I reached the regiment I learned the full story of the fight The morning was a very foggy one, and the rebels crawled silently toward our lines, and then rushed for our breastworks. But there was an obstacle in the path that they hadn’t dreamed of. Our fellows had busied themselves during the night in weaving telegraph wires among the stumps out at the front, and when the rebs charged they suddenly found themselves sprawling every-which-way, while our boys were pumping lead into them as fast as they could loadand fire. The rebs came on again and again, until the ground in front of the Second was carpeted with dead and wounded rebels. But the rebels managed to get through the lines to the right and the left, and the army fell back and formed a new line of battle a mile or less to the rear of the old position. Although there was light skirmishing all day, at some points, the rebels had done about all the attacking they cared to for one day.
I stayed with the regiment all day, to see the fun if there was any more going. One time I thought there would be. The brigade was called to attention and moved forward in battle line, across the fields, toward the woods where the morning’s fight had taken place. Old “Buckskin” and I thoughtlessly jogged along behind the Second. Before we were within ordinary rifle range of the woods, a bullet “pinged” by not far from me. Pretty soon there was another. And then another! Looking up and down, I saw I was the only mounted man on the line, and it dawned upon me that some sharpshooter with a long-range rifle had picked me out as the boss of the expedition and was trying to get me. And he could shoot, too. My pride wouldn’t let me turn and run, badly as I wanted to, and I was about to drop to the ground and walk when the bugles sounded a halt, and we about-faced and marched back—and I was mighty glad to go.
During the night our army came back into the camps. This morning the rebels appeared in front of our lines and lively skirmishing has been going on all day. The army is engaged in throwing up intrenchments, the Second working as hard as any of them.