 and
taking their places in the ranks. Some who were in even worse condition than the
soldier already mentioned insisted, in spite of the protestations of surgeons,
officers, and comrades, that they would run no more risk in the field than in
the hospital-train; and I saw three men whom the surgeon was obliged to place in
an ambulance by force, and then put over them a guard with loaded muskets, so
determined were they to go with their comrades into the fight.
Our rest in the ravine was by no
means undisturbed. The enemy having observed our advance over the hill shot and
shell very soon began to fly about us thick and fast, battering far and near
like swiftly-driven hail. Right in the midst of the storm this exhibition of
soldierly coolness met my observation. Some twenty-five feet from the right of
our regimental line of muskets ran a little creek bordered on either side by
large trees. A fallen tree served as a bridge or crossing. One of the drivers of
the Ambulance Corps was stooping on this log washing his hands. A spent-shell
came ripping through the trees behind him and buried itself just deep enough in
the log to make it stick. He turned about and with the heel of his boot kicked
the shell into the water, saying, "Now, old screech-owl, bust if you want to."
And burst it did; but a second or two after blowing one end of the log into
splinters and completely deluging the driver, upon which, dropping himself
astride the remainder of the bridge, he surveyed himself coolly and exclaimed,
"Well, I came here to wash my hands; but hang me if I expected a shower-bath in
such an out-of-the-way place as this!"
The firing at the front
continued, and the rebel compliments in the form of shells still dropped
occasionally around us. At half past six the bugle sounded again "Fall in."
Instantly every man grasped his weapon and took his position. The Second
Division—but one division, the Third, had as yet been in the fight—moved off
first. Our appearance on the hill was the signal for a terrific fire from the
rebels; some of their heaviest guns were opened upon us; shell after shell came
"singing its devilish song through the air;" but the column kept straight on,
facing the storm with unshrinking front. Presently we came to what is called a
"Virginia fence," and so known all over the North. Over this we had to climb. A
sergeant in my company while getting over fell through. Picking himself up he
turned to a comrade and said, "Do you know why I am like the President?" The
comrade apparently had no disposition for joking; but the soldier forced the
answer as he took his position: "I'll tell you," said he; "it's because I'm a
rail-splitter." We laughed, and just then, not two yards behind me, a solid shot
plowed its way through our ranks and the joking sergeant with three of his
companions were killed almost instantly. The sergeant, with his joke lying
nettlesome on his lips, was literally torn in two!
After this we entered a thick
wood, upon the other side of which we could see our line of battle. The firing
had abated considerably, the cannonading almost entirely. We were halted, and
the order "Rest" was given. A division—the Second of the Fifth Corps, I
think—which had been all day in the field, but had been relieved by the Third
Division of our corps, were going to the rear, taking many of their wounded with
them. One man, who was supported by two comrades, had had his lower jaw taken
off, and as he moved along held up in his hand the bloody bone, misshapen and
splintered, with fine teeth still remaining in it. Another, lying upon a
stretcher, had lost both feet by a solid shot. The bleeding stumps had not yet
been dressed, and the stretcher was covered with the blood of the dying hero.
Yet, for all this, amidst the roar of musketry, and with the pain his wounds
must have caused, he was singing in a clear voice, with enough of the Irish
accent to make the strain musical:
"The Star-Spangled Banner, oh
long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave."
While I was yet looking after the
footless soldier, a littl