een in the French army, and if I had
allowed him to gain his feet, I might have suffered for it; so perhaps
in such times my plan was the best--kill or be killed.

About eight hundred of us were every night busily engaged in the
trenches, whilst a large number, who were called the covering party,
were on the look out in case of an attack from the enemy. The rain
poured down so fast that balers were obliged to be employed in places,
and at times the trenches were in such a state of mud that it was over
our shoes. We were chiefly employed during the day in finishing off
what we had done in the night, as very little else could be done then
owing to the enemy's fire. We had not been to work many days before we
got within musket shot of a fine fort situated a little distance from
the town, and garrisoned with four or five hundred of the enemy, who
annoyed us rather during our operations. One night as I was working in
the trenches near this place, and just as the guard was about to be
relieved, a shell from the town fell amongst them and exploded,
killing and wounding about thirty. I never saw a worse sight of its
kind, for some had their arms and legs, and some even their heads,
which was worse, completely severed from their bodies. I remember my
comrade, Pig Harding, who was working near me at the time, and had,
like myself, become hardened to the worst of sights during our sojourn
in the Peninsula, saying as a joke, "Lawrence, if any one is in want
of an arm or a leg he can have a good choice there;" little thinking,
poor fellow, that soon he would himself be carried out, numbered with
the slain. On the morning after this explosion a terrific scene of our
mangled comrades presented itself, for their remains strewed the
ground in all directions.

Of course our next thought was how to clear ourselves of this
troublesome fort. Some suspicions were entertained that it was
undermined, so in the dead of night some engineers were sent between
it and the town to search for a train, and finding that the earth had
been moved, they dug down and found the train and cut it off. Then, on
the next night, the Eighty-seventh and Eighty-eighth regiments were
ordered up to storm the fort, and succeeded after a brisk action in
gaining the place, the most of the garrison escaping into the town.
Next morning I entered the fort with the rest, where we found the
wounded Frenchmen lying. We relieved their pain a little by giving
them some of our