The next
morning we were ordered to march again, but we soon began to get hungry,
and we had about half halted and about not halted at all. Some of the
boys were picking blackberries. The main body of the regiment was
marching leisurely along the road, when bang, debang, debang, bang,
and a volley of buck and ball came hurling right through the two advance
companies of the regiment--companies H and K. We had marched into a
Yankee ambuscade.
All at once everything was a scene of consternation and confusion;
no one seemed equal to the emergency. We did not know whether to run or
stand, when Captain Field gave the command to fire and charge the bushes.
We charged the bushes and saw the Yankees running through them, and we
fired on them as they retreated. I do not know how many Yankees were
killed, if any. Our company (H) had one man killed, Pat Hanley, an
Irishman, who had joined our company at Chattanooga. Hugh Padgett and
Dr. Hooper, and perhaps one or two others, were wounded.
After the fighting was over, where, O where, was all the fine rigging
heretofore on our officers? They could not be seen. Corporals,
sergeants, lieutenants, captains, all had torn all the fine lace off
their clothing. I noticed that at the time and was surprised and hurt.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35