d for duty, and therefore a remnant of the regiment avoided the
fate of prison life in the south.

The next day the enemy opened with artillery at an early hour, and the
firing on the skirmish line was very lively until eleven o'clock.
Captain Burke was wounded in the shoulder during the morning. At five
o'clock in the afternoon I was detailed with fifty men to skirmish
with the enemy on the Lee's Mill road for an hour or two to allow the
regular picket line a little rest and time to eat. I had hardly got
the line properly deployed, when it seems the enemy were ready to make
their assault on the town. From the woods emerged the Confederates in
great numbers. The loyal line fired a few regular shots, but the enemy
came pouring out of the woods in such numbers that the Union line
withered and shrank back. The enemy's artillery came to the crest of
the hill, and so well was it manned that our camps were completely
riddled, and Fort Williams partially silenced.

It was a regular artillery fight, and many old army officers said it
was the handsomest artillery duel they ever witnessed. Three of the
Sixteenth were wounded in the engagements in the skirmish line, one of
whom was A.P. Forbes, of Company B. The enemy came on so rapidly, and
we retired so slowly, that the two lines nearly met. One of the
Sixteenth was pressed so closely that, in the dusk of the evening, he
dodged behind a stump and thereby saved himself from capture. He was
so near the Confederate battery that he overheard a staff officer give
the order, "It is no use, captain, we cannot endure this fire,--limber
to the rear." The enemy retiring, he returned inside our ranks.

Heavy artillery firing was kept up until eleven o'clock P.M., and
under cover of the darkness, the enemy advanced up to Fort Wessells, a
work about ten hundred yards in front of the line of fortifications.
Fort Wessells was furiously stormed three separate times, by a very
superior force with great loss of life. The third time it had to
succumb, and sixty men were captured. The fort was well supplied with
hand grenades, which were used with great effectiveness. It was during
this night that the famous ram, "Albemarle," came down the Roanoke
river, passing our batteries, sank the Southfield, and drove off the
balance of the fleet of gunboats. The Bombshell had previously gone up
the river, and in returning was so completely riddled by the enemy's
batteries, that she sank on arriving at the