ad the advantage of a strong position and our force was
too small to make such an attack with any prospect of success. As we went
up through the wood we passed a Johnny who was killed while aiming his
gun. He was lying flat on the ground behind a stump. His head had dropped
forward a little, but otherwise he was in the exact position of aiming his
gun; he had been shot through the head and killed instantly. He was
evidently one of the sharpshooters who had been annoying us that morning
when we were in the edge of the pasture where Lawriston Barnes was killed.

That engagement of Hancock's corps at the salient, called also the "bloody
angle" has gone into history as one of the most desperate engagements of
the Civil War. We remained in the immediate vicinity until the 19th, when
we were moved away to the left, to the extreme left of the army, I think,
and threw up a lot of earthworks. We lay quietly near our earthworks all
day the 20th. The next day about the middle of the afternoon we started
for the North Anna River, marching all night and all the next day through
a most beautiful section of the country and camping at night near Bowling
Green. The 23d we approached the North Anna River in the afternoon. The
roar of the artillery just ahead of us steadily increased until it became
perfectly terrific. It was the first time during the campaign the
artillery of either army had had an opportunity to make itself heard.
Again, the artillery of the two armies was separated from each other by a
good-sized river; each thus felt perfectly safe, and they barked away to
their hearts' content. Just before we turned into the field to camp for
the night, a cannon ball fired by the Johnnies at our artillery on the
hill ahead of us, struck the hill, then bounded along down and finally
rolled along the road among the feet of the horses of a regiment of
cavalry that was passing us--we having moved to the side of the road to
let them pass. The way those horses jumped around there indicated
distinctly that they knew what it was, and that they did not like the
looks of it a bit.

May 24. During the middle of the forenoon we were moved down on to an
island in the river with another regiment, expecting to make a charge
across that part of the river on the Johnnies' works on the other side. We
stayed there a few hours, then returned without attempting any advance. In
the middle of the afternoon we moved up the river a little way and crossed
at