led to me and has thus stuck in my
memory. A man who was in a Massachusetts battery that was in Hooker's
corps and was engaged around to the right of us, on the east side of the
heights, had an interesting encounter with a Johnnie which might have
resulted very differently from what it did. His duty when in action was to
swab out the cannon after it was fired, then in loading to ram down the
cartridge. His position was thus near the muzzle of the gun and the most
advanced of any of the men working the piece. The battery took an advanced
and an exposed position. The Confederates charged on it hoping to capture
the guns, but the battery mowed them down furiously. One Reb, however,
kept right on, marched right up and made a bayonet thrust at him. He
turned, parried the thrust with his swab, knocking the muzzle of the
Johnnies' gun down; the bayonet, however, went through the thick part of
his left leg just below the knee. At that moment the sergeant in command
of the gun who stood a few feet to the rear, drew his revolver and shot
the Johnnie who fell to the ground, the stock end of the musket going down
with him. The bayonet sticking through the leg of our friend, thus gave
him a dreadful twist, but he stooped over, picked up the gun and pulled
the bayonet out of his leg, jumped on to the cannon and as the other men
had brought up the horses he rode away. He thus made his escape and the
battery lost no guns.

The morning of the 17th it was my fortune to be one of a detail of fifty
men ordered out on special fatigue duty. We were marched down to the
headquarters of the corps guard and stayed there all day. At night rations
were sent down to us, and we slept in one of the guard tents that night.
The next morning (the 18th) we were marched down to the river bank under a
flag of truce. The Johnnies showed a flag of truce on the other side of
the river. We got into a boat and crossed over. As soon as we were on the
other side, we learned that we were to go up onto the battlefield and bury
our dead. We marched through the city out onto the very field where we had
fought, and where we did picket duty the 15th, to witness the most
ghastly, the most shocking, the most humiliating scene possible. The
field was covered with dead men. Dead men everywhere, some black in the
face, most of them had the characteristic pallor of death; nearly all had
been stripped of every article of clothing. All were frozen; some with
their heads off, so