Chapter XVII.THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN.
Yes, it all appears to my mind like a dream,How we filed out of camp, and forded that stream.Through the storm we have struggled, by day and by night;For our flag and our country, we wrought with our might.On that dangerous post, through the dews and the damp,We have guarded from ill, our slumbering camp.M. B. D.
Yes, it all appears to my mind like a dream,How we filed out of camp, and forded that stream.Through the storm we have struggled, by day and by night;For our flag and our country, we wrought with our might.On that dangerous post, through the dews and the damp,We have guarded from ill, our slumbering camp.M. B. D.
Yes, it all appears to my mind like a dream,How we filed out of camp, and forded that stream.Through the storm we have struggled, by day and by night;For our flag and our country, we wrought with our might.On that dangerous post, through the dews and the damp,We have guarded from ill, our slumbering camp.
Yes, it all appears to my mind like a dream,
How we filed out of camp, and forded that stream.
Through the storm we have struggled, by day and by night;
For our flag and our country, we wrought with our might.
On that dangerous post, through the dews and the damp,
We have guarded from ill, our slumbering camp.
M. B. D.
M. B. D.
From the 12th to the 23rd, our regiment was constantly under fire from the enemy in front of us, at Spotsylvania Courthouse, and vicinity, continually changing our location, throwing up earthworks each night after a weary day’s march, before we could roll ourselves in our blankets, and take our short night’s rest.
On the morning of the 23rd, we took up our line of march towards the North Anna river,crossing it at Jericho Ford, our brigade advancing at once in line of battle into a piece of woods, where we had a skirmish with the enemy, who fell back, and we proceeded to fell trees, and build a line of works.
Before we had finished them, the enemy in force, under General Hill, attacked us, and endeavored to drive us out of our works and into the river. The assault fell mainly upon our division. Our regiment was on the left of the line of battle, and we did our best to give them a warm reception. For the first time since the campaign began, we fought in our works. It was a short, sharp fight, and the enemy was repulsed.
We remained in our works until morning, when we moved on towards Hanover Junction, but on May 26th we received orders to retire, which we did during the night, and once more crossed the North Anna river at Quarles Ford, and marched almost constantly for twenty-four hours towards the Pamunky river.
We next met the enemy near Mechanicsville, on the morning of the 30th of May. Little did we think then, that in the future years, that day would be set apart for honoring the memoryof the fallen sons of the nation, our brigade advanced in line of battle through Tolopotomy Swamp, driving the confederate skirmishers until we came to open fields near Shady Grove Church, where we found the enemy in force behind earthworks.
We could not take them, so kept back as much as we could, out of range, yet our loss during the day was twenty-two, killed or wounded. I shall never forget our march through Tolopotomy woods, keeping in line, over briars and fallen trees and stumps. Our shoes were worn out with twenty five days of constant marching and fighting, and we were about as bad off ourselves. But we got there all the same, and staid there until midnight, when we were relieved by a part of the Ninth Corps, and went into camp, where we remained on the reserve for two or three days.
We took this time to do a little much needed washing, for we had no change of clothing, being in very light marching order. During our long marches, often, when we came to a stream, have I taken off my shirt, given it a hasty wash, wrung it out, put it on again, and gone on my way rejoicing.
Perhaps the simple record kept in my diary during that “Bloody May,” as it has been so often called, will give some idea of the life we led when we were constantly confronting the enemy, with, as we might well say, a musket in one hand, and a shovel in the other; we could not stop to rest without first shoveling up earthworks to protect us from the fire of the ever active enemy.