s were posted on
considerably higher ground, with three times as many guns and of heavier
caliber than ours, which served us the same galling fire that had
wrecked the batteries preceding us. After having been engaged for an
hour, a battery posted some two hundred yards to our left was stampeded
and came by us under whip and spur, announcing, as they passed, that
they were flanked by Federal cavalry. In the commotion, some one in our
battery called out that we had orders to withdraw, and, before it could
be corrected, eight or ten of the company, joining in the rout, beat a
retreat to the woods, for which they were afterward punished; some
being assigned as drivers, and one or two gallant fellows having it ever
afterward to dim their glory. We soon, however, recovered from the
confusion, but with diminished numbers. I know that for a part of the
time I filled the positions of 7, 5, and 2 at my gun, until a gallant
little lieutenant named Day, of some general's staff, relieved me of
part of the work. My brother John, working at the gun next to mine,
received a painful shell-wound in the side and had to leave the field.
His place was supplied by Doran, an Irishman, and in a few minutes
Doran's arm was shattered by a shell, causing him to cry out most
lustily. My brother David, shortly after this, was disabled by a blow on
his arm, and, at my solicitation, left the field.

I would suggest to any young man when enlisting to select a company in
which he has no near kindred. The concern as to one's own person affords
sufficient entertainment, without being kept in suspense as to who went
down when a shell explodes in proximity to another member of the family.

John Fuller, driver at the piece next on my right, was crouched down on
his knees, with his head leaning forward, holding his horses. Seeing a
large shell descending directly toward him, I called to him to look out!
When he raised his head, this shell was within five feet of him and
grazed his back before entering the ground close behind him. He was
severely shocked, and for some days unfit for duty. At the first battle
of Fredericksburg, more than a year after this, while holding his horses
and kneeling in the same posture, a shell descending in like manner
struck him square on his head and passed down through the length of his
body. A month after the battle I saw all that was left of his cap--the
morocco vizor--lying on the ground where he was killed.

Behind us, sc