Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1861-08-21
waldorf's Escape from the Ene.
INV.
FoRr CoRcoRAN. August 8.

UNI OOfCOhAN, August D.
DEAR PARENTS Having recovered
somewhat from my late tramp once more
write few lines to let YOU know how we
are getting along. My arm is healing as
fast as possible. | will now tell YOU how
came to be taken prisoner by the rebels,
and of my escape from them had been
unusually i'll since the fight on the 18th
and was not well on the morning Of the
2lst when we marched to the scene of ac-
ton. We formed in line of battle to protect
Sherman's battery. After marching some
ten miles we stopped until 10 o'clock, when
we were ordered across the run to assist
General Hunter; we were marched over on
double-quick time, the distance being about
mile and half; we were formed in line
of battle and marched towards the enemy
with cannon balls flying over our heads
thick and fast. When close enough we
halted and fired two or three rounds into
the enemy's ranks doing great damage
when we were ordered to retreat. BY this
time | was so near exhausted that
could not keep up with our regiment, and
ing up. fired five or six rounds with
them when they were ordered to retreat;
tried to retreat with them but failed to keep
up and had to fall in with the next that
came along; | fired two rounds with them
ant was primeing my gun for the third
when musket ball struck me in the arm
and knocked my gun out Of my hand. |
picked it up with the other hand and walk
ed off from the battle ground; came to the
hospital where our wounded were and stop
ped. did not know that our side had re-
treated and thought that we were perfectly
safe, but the first we knew the rebel cavalry
came up and took US prisoners. There
were about 27O wounded and don't know
how many that were pot, for they were
taken away that night, with the exception
of few that were left to take care of the
wounded. / hope that it may never be
my lot to get into the hospital with the
wounded again; the groans of the wound
ed and dying were too horrible to relate.
There was thirty died while | was there.
We were all well taken care of; the ladies
came in and brought chicken and a great
many other nice things for the wounded.
| stayed there until the next Friday night
when myself and two others, Capt. Allen
Of Mass. 18th, and Z. p. Dougherty of N.
Y. list made our escape. We managed
to get by the guard about / 0 o'clock with
out being seen, and travelled all Of that
night without stopping to rest; we stopped
about two hours and pushed on again in
the morning; had to keep in the woods
for we dare not be seen; we got along
without any trouble until O'clock, Satur-
day evening, when we got starved out and
thought that we would venture up to a
house and get something to eat Having
found house in the woods we thought we
would try, SO we went in and asked for
some bread and milk there was one man
and two or three women in the house who
told us that we could have some bread and
milk, but they had no bread baked but
would make a corn-dodger for us; the
dodger was soon ready, and we went to
work like SO many hungry dogs. While
we were eating a young man rode up to
the house and held some cons ersation With
the man of the house; he then started off
through the woods, when We began to
..smelI rat" We swallowed our grub as
quick as possible and started, but had not
cone more than a half a mile before they
were after us; we were in an open field at
this time, and they ordered us to halt, but
we took TO our heels and got into a piece
Of woods, which we soon passed through
and found five or six men waiting for us
who gave us chase. We took different
course and got out of sight, and soon came
into another piece Of timber; at this time
it was beginning to get dark, and we hid
under an oak tree; our pursuers followed
US, and at one time came SO close that
their horses came near treading on the
mans legs that lay by my side. We look
ed out and saw woman standing at the
corner of the woods with a gun in her
hands watching for US; they hunted for
about an hour after dark and gave up .
chase. We stayed there until about | o.
clock when we crawled out and made for
the Potomac river which we reached about
daylight, and after considerable trouble
we found fording place. We were now
about 90 miles from Washington. We
stsyed with our picket guards on Sunday
night and arrived at our camp on Monday
about 0 o'clock where found the boys all
safe and glad enough to see me. We had
travelled in all somewhere near 10 miles
and was pretty near used up.
Your affectonate son,
| 0gIANDo WALDORF.