Three years in the Army of the Potomac

30 April – 6 May 1863

Battle of Chancellorsville

SECOND BULL EUN, AND CHANTILLY. 135

were drunk in Alexandiia while their comrades were dying upon the field ; and the number that fought, if compared with the rolls of those who were paid, reveals a lax state of discipline. In one regiment, only 302 men in 843 were present during the action ; in another, consisting of 847, only 318 took part ; in two regiments the ratio was smaller, and 596 were en- gaged : so that less than three-eighths of a brigade performed the hazardous duty of fighting. The rebels advanced their lines, threw shells into the hospitals, and killed soldiers who were helpless on account of wounds. The frightened sur- geons and nurses abandoned, in one place, those who required their care ; while the so-called daughters of two regiments boldly remained, and loudly denounced the runaways. An orderly in the regiment found a scabbard which was besmeared with blood, and a private discovered the sword that was a shght distance from it ; and, by pitching a copper, both were won by the sergeant, who was afi;erwards promoted, and wore them until he was killed at Chancellorsville. The fragments of exploding shells could be easily discerned in the air, and I noticed one which shattered the jaw of a bugler as he was sounding a call. The sufferings of those who were captured by the enemy cannot be described: the wounded had no care during five days ; and others were reduced so much by insufficient food, that, when they were released, they gladly ate the crumbs of hard bread which had been scattered more than a week upon the ground at Centreville. The corpses of three hundred soldiers were placed upon each other, and

THE MARCH TO GETTYSBURG.

'HE ordinary labors of the camp were resumed ; the old lines were again guarded ; and one regiment near the brigade was drilling upon the plain the day after it returned to quarters. As a sanitary precau- tion, the barracks used in the winter were levelled ; the tents were pitched upon ground that had not been occupied ; and the blankets of the soldiers were spread upon a network of branches which was eighteen inches above the surface of the earth. The camps, in June, presented a gala appear- ance ; the streets between the companies were adorned with arches and festoons of evergreen ; and short pines and savins which had been transplanted from the forest difiused their genial shade. Although the corps had nc^ly performed its duty at Chancellorsville, none of its brave members were allowed to receive furloughs or leaves of absence, because an inspector-general, one of those contemptible staff-officers that skulk to the rear in a battle, and display feats of horseman- ship to the cooks, teamsters, pioneers, and other non-combat- ants, falsely reported that it' was demoralized. The only fact upon which this unjust action was based was the neglect

THE ADVANCE TO MINE RUN. 257

woods upon both sides of the road, and drove the rebel pickets, with their supports, two miles, until they reached a house which stood in an open field. The troops double- quicked at two and a half, p.m., from this point to Locust or Orange Grove, in which a sharp contest ensued between the skirmishers, and steadily forced the enemy to rejoin the prin- cipal force which was posted in the road that ran to Haccoon Ford, The regiment, and that upon its left, held a position upon the slope of a gentle ascent against an attack; and the rebels, who could, not stand erect and face the shower of lead, crouched upon the earth, and sought the protection of the crest. A part of another brigade gave way upon the right, and exposed that fiank, so that the regiment was obliged to fall back to the cleared tract, where it re-formed its ranks, and at once entered the forest and resumed the old ground. Fourteen or fifteen rebels who belonged to North Caro- lina concealed themselves between logs, to be sheltered from the fire of friends and enemies during this last advance ; and gladly rose up, cast aside their equipments and rifles, and, in the excess of their joy, actually threw their arms around the necks of the astonished soldiers. A private who belonged to a detachment of Union prisoners, and a member of the guard that accompanied them from Chancellorsville to Rich- mond, recognized each other, and grasped hands in the most cordial manner.

THE BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS, ETC. 277

test ; and tlie regiment crossed the river at Ely's Ford at half- past twelve, P.M., upon a pontoon bridge that consisted of nine boats which were anchored twenty-one feet apart. The felled trees and other obstructions in the roads were removed by the axes and spades of the pioneers ; and the troops marched with gTeat rapidity until three, p.m., when the corps halted, and formed its lines upon the old battle-ground of Chancellorsville. The numerous breastworks that were thrown up by both armies to hold their positions, the shat- tered oaks and splintered limbs, and the fragments of weath- er-stained clothing and equipments scattered upon the j&eld, reminded the men of the famihar scenes of that sanguinary struggle. Many of the Union dead had been exhumed, or remained unburied ; jaws, arms, and legs were bleaching upon the soil ; and the wasps and moles made their nests in some of the skulls. Not a shot was fii*ed during the day ; no bugle or drum resounded through the forest ; the unnatural stillness which precedes the dreadful tempest reigned ; and the brigade bivouacked upon the same spot that it occupied on the same date of the previous year.