. War as viewed from the ranks. Personal recollections of the War of the Rebellion, by a private soldier . ock in the morning, ourreveille sounded ; by four we were on the march, and by eleven we hadcovered seventeen miles and reached Columbia. The cannons boomand musketry rattle told us plainly the kind of work there was on handfor us now. We turned in for lunch and our coffee was very hastilyboiled, for fear that we might be called into action before it was suffi-ciently cooled to be drank. The stray cannon shot came plowing aroundunpleasantly near. In the evening Company D was ordered on pi
. War as viewed from the ranks. Personal recollections of the War of the Rebellion, by a private soldier . ock in the morning, ourreveille sounded ; by four we were on the march, and by eleven we hadcovered seventeen miles and reached Columbia. The cannons boomand musketry rattle told us plainly the kind of work there was on handfor us now. We turned in for lunch and our coffee was very hastilyboiled, for fear that we might be called into action before it was suffi-ciently cooled to be drank. The stray cannon shot came plowing aroundunpleasantly near. In the evening Company D was ordered on picket duty. On the morn-ing of the 25th at nine oclock we were relieved while there was veryheavy skirmishing, and were now kept very busy strengthening ourworks. At eleven oclock, in the intense darkness, we were marched over tothe extreme right. Some hay was burned along the ranks to mark ourline. We worked all night. The next day, while the skirmishers keptup a terrific fire, we kept up active work, making abatis, placing head-logs and building strong defensive works CHAPTER XVII. At the Stone URING the 26th there was heavy skirmishing in ourfront and heavy fighting on our left. In the nightwe were marched through mud, rain, sleet and im-penetrable darkness to somewhere, we did not knowwhere. We were halted upon a very rocky andbroken side hill. The water, slush and mud camedown the rough sides of the hill in torrents. Itsleeted and rained incessantly and we could find noplace to sit or lie down. Our condition was decided-ly uncomfortable. When welcome daylight camewe saw that we were on the side of the hill and at the foot of the StoneFort at Columbia, Tenn, Just twenty rods away were enough sheds,as we could now see, to have sheltered us from the storm. I wonderwhy they were not used, or were the officers as ignorant of their presenceas were we ? This sorry Sabbath day was opened with heavy skirmish-ing, but by noon it was seemingly very quiet. When darkness came the
Size: 1298px × 1925px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1898
