Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1863-02-18

to Hamilton on twenty days leave, but VIII
not be fit for duty for some two months. His
wound does. pot seem to affect his spirits at
all, as it would appear from his letters. he is
brave fellow.
About the same time that he was wound
ed, Chris. Shearer, one Of our men was Sc
verey wounded in the leg. He was very
pretty boy, hardly over eighteen, with a face
as smooth and almost as fair as girls. He
crawled back to Inc in great pain evidently,
and begged me to take of his knapsacll, which
1 helped him to do, and sent man with him,
to take him to the hospital. Its not allow
able for soldiers to leave the field, for such
purpose during the engagement but could
not stand it to see such pain. After the bat
tie, went to the General Hospital, mile or
so in the rear Sunday evening" to see him,
and others of our wounded. Heseemed pref
ty comfortable and doing well, but he died
the next Wednesday. A letter came from
his brother, which opened next day to get
his address, so as to write TO him. he has a
sister living in Columbus but I don't know her
husbands name.
After occupying this position for nearly
four hours, and it was feared that our anu
milton was getting exhausted our regiment
was relieved, another regiment came up be-
hind US, to take our place, and we got up and
moved to the rear, in good order. As we
moved off and the bullets came whistling
from behind US, the thought occurred to me,
how easily it might happen for some poor
fellow, who had done his duty all day, and
was thea doing it, to be shot in the back
and afterwards have it thrown up to him, as
a reproach by some mean fellow of the baser
sort" 1t was a strange thought probably for
the time and place, but it occurred to me.
Moving. back few hundred yards, we halt
ed in big field, beyond the railroad and re-
plenished ammunition from wagon. While
standing here by ourselves-no other regi-
ments Immediately around, General Rose
Grams rode up with some Of his staff Re has
changed very much since I saw him in Co
lumbus in June, 1861. He was then quite
ike the picture you have of him. He now
appears, or did as I saw him on the field to
have gained greatly in size and weight, Gan
appearance which was probably increased by
being on horseback and wearing a large Cav
airy overcoat and much sterner expression
of couutenance. He inquired what regiment
it was, and found fault with its being left in
such an exposed position, while replenishing
ammunition-directing it to be faced about
so as to take advantage Of little undulation
in the ground, as a shelter. The most ex-
posed place in the field" said he, fright where
my Adjutant General (Gaesche) was killed
But the tide Of battle had evidently turned in
some other direction since then, for all the
time we stood there, I don't recollect seeing a
shot We didn't stand long however before
we received orders to go and support a bat
terry in another. part of the field. 1t was ap-
pretended that the rebels would charge our
battery, and we were placed on It's left as in
fantry supports, and as soon as we got into
position, were ordered to lie down to avoid
the fire. The rebel battery engaged with ours
was on the top of bare hill, about half mile
of, and was most effectively served. We
could see them plainly against the sky, with a
heavy column of ofinGantry near them as sup
ports. When we got into this position it
was about 3 clock, and we laid there till 5,
with nothing to do-nothing we could do, but
lie there and take it, We lay on the side of a
hill exposed broadside to the enemy's battery,
and they soon got the range so that every shot
seemed to strike somewhere amongst US, or
so near that escape seemed impossible. Our
little company now reduced to hardly more
than twenty men, covered a space hardly
larger than the Library floor C8 feet sqnare)
as we lay on the ground, and four of them
were wounded while we lay there, all slight
ly however, and all at once. Hatfield, who
was with me some FIVE months as cook, was
one of them and Pat Nee another.
hope it win not be thought very 1tnherOic
to confess that as we laid under the harrow
ing FIRE, many longing look was cast at the
sun, with the hope that it would go down and
give US rest. If so, I'm afraid it is charge
to which more than have confessed it, will
nave. to plead guilty heard high officer
commanding brigade-say that he didn't
know how often he thought of the expression
ofWellington, at Waterloo. "Oh that Bluch-
er, or night were come" Another staff officer
said he looked at his watch, and it wanted
minutes of 3. Pretty soon he looked again
and was rather surprised to find that it still
wanted minutes offs Determined not to
look again until a good while had elapsed,
he put up his watch as he thought for a long
time, then looked sgain--it was not quite 8
yet He put up his watch in disgust and did
not look again. Time passes slowly when q
man has nothing to do but lie still under g
battery fire. If we had known more Of how
the day was going, or had anything to do, or
had any responsibility, we might have fell
differently. As it was, we knew nothing o.
any Butcher to arrive and only looked fol
night .
At last at twenty minutes past FIVE, by my
new Waltham watch, which I think I had
consulted about sixteen times during the day
the sun went down and soon, fter, we wers
removed to another position where we lay
about an hour longer before it got dark, anG
the firing entirely ceased. Then we got W
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