. Down in Dixie : life in a cavalry regiment in the war days, from the Wilderness to Appomattox . ebels to within two miles or lessof Richmond, up to the trenches of the main line ofworks. We could have s^one in, but we mioht havebeen compelled to stay, as the works were soon filledwith Confederates, who rallied from every direction tothe defense of the capital. We could hear the ringingof bells and the blowing of steam whistles in the city. While the fight at Yellow Tavern was opening,Grant was hammering away at Spottsylvania, andabout the time Sheridan declared that, Were goingthrough on thi
. Down in Dixie : life in a cavalry regiment in the war days, from the Wilderness to Appomattox . ebels to within two miles or lessof Richmond, up to the trenches of the main line ofworks. We could have s^one in, but we mioht havebeen compelled to stay, as the works were soon filledwith Confederates, who rallied from every direction tothe defense of the capital. We could hear the ringingof bells and the blowing of steam whistles in the city. While the fight at Yellow Tavern was opening,Grant was hammering away at Spottsylvania, andabout the time Sheridan declared that, Were goingthrough on this road, Grant wrote that famous dispatch— Wednesday, May 11, 1864 — that contained theannouncement: I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes allsummer. For a time during the fight at Yellow Tavern our ,i8 DOWN IN DIXIE. brigade was drawn up in line in an open field to theleft of the road leading toward Richmond. Every nowand then a Federal trooper would tumble out of hissaddle, shot by a rebel sharpshooter in the woods at ourfront. After three or four of our boys had been killed. A REBEL SHARPSHOOTER. or wounded, the location of the Confederate was dis-covered. The sharpshooter wore white pantaloons anda white shirt. He was in a tree immediately in ourfront, and not more than twenty yards in the rear ofthe rebel skirmish line. We could see him load and DOWN IN DIXIE. 319 fire. There would be a little puff of smoke, and aboutthe same instant the bullet would ping about ourears. Then the report of the rifle, sounding like a smallfirecracker, would be heard. It was not pleasant to sit there as a target for thatwhite-clad grayback. An officer of a New York regi-ment— I think it was the Tenth—was or^anizinsf aparty to make a coup de main, to dash out and captureor kill the Confederate with the lono--ranQre rifle, whena mule whacker, who drove an ambulance, came upwith a doughboys musket that he had picked up in theWilderness, and had carried on his wagon. Maybe the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectunitedstateshistoryc
