ls where he had been repeatedly
hit by our own fire. The pain of his wounds had made him crazy, for he
would not talk, but kept crawling about on all fours moaning in agony.
There were a few men missing from the company of whom their comrades could
give no account. Moved by the fate of the drafted man, I crossed the
breastwork to search outside, if perchance I might find one or more of the
missing ones lying there wounded and bring them aid. I went to a gun of
the Sixth Ohio battery, posted a short distance east of the cotton-gin, to
get over; and as I stepped up into the embrasure, the sight that met my
eyes was most horrible even in the dim starlight. The mangled bodies of
the dead rebels were piled up as high as the mouth of the embrasure, and
the gunners said that repeatedly when the lanyard was pulled the embrasure
was filled with men, crowding forward to get in, who were literally blown
from the mouth of the cannon. Only one rebel got past the muzzle of that
gun and one of the gunners snatched up a pick leaning against the
breastwork and killed him with that. Captain Baldwin of this battery has
stated that as he stood by one of his guns, watching the effect of its
fire, he could hear the smashing of the bones when the missiles tore their
way through the dense ranks of the approaching rebels.

While I was cautiously making my way around one side of that heap of
mangled humanity, a wounded man lying at the bottom, with head and
shoulders protruding, begged me for the love of Christ to pull the dead
bodies off him. The ditch was piled promiscuously with the dead and badly
wounded and heads, arms, and legs were sticking out in almost every
conceivable manner. The ground near the ditch was so thickly covered with
bodies that I had to pick my steps carefully to avoid treading on some of
them. The air was filled with the moans of the wounded; and the pleadings
for water and for help of some of those who saw me were heartrending.
While walking along towards the pike to get in the pathway in which my
company had come back, I passed two rebel flags lying on the ground close
together. It did not occur to me that I would be entitled to any credit
for picking up the flags under such circumstances, but I thought that if I
did not find what I was looking for I would return that way and take the
flags in with me. I had passed on a few steps when I heard a man behind me
exclaim, "Look out, there!" Thinking he meant me, I turned hast