The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1863-03-25

| light up with sort OF grim satisfaction,
because, he told me once, the excitement
left him 20 time to think adding, mourn
fully, that he should be dubbed the
greatest coward iu the regiment could 1t
be known with what dread he looked for
ward to his long, sleepless nights, and
those listless days when only the ordinary
routine was going on.
! We were before Fredsricksburg-or
rath .r, the river that separated 1t from
us. Phil hid just come from -, where
! he had been sent on a secret mission,
having also improved his short furlough
to come on here, and get himself stabbed
to the heart afresh. Ii had seen Nellie
she had received him coldiy at first
scarcely spoken to him in fact but re-
len,ing by degl ees, suffered hn to plead
his cause agaiu, and raised his hopes only
to dash them more fata lily to the ground
He came back utterly desperate We
were getting ready for he bombardment,
aud he threw himself into the prepara-
tlons with the yea! and spirit of twenty
men. Everything was as peaceful as if
Nature was holding her breath to watch
US The sky looked down on us SO SOL
emnly that, though | dou't know what
ever put it in my head at such a time, |
could think Of nothing but that other
winters night when it was bright with
angels praislng God, and proclaiming
peace on earth. The water seemed to
hush itself, as if afraid to ripple. In the
stiffness We could hear the barking of
dogs, aud the melancholy Ginning of the
tomn.cock sounding out the hour while
on our side the only noise was the rum
bling OF artillery as We got the batteries
into position, and the heavy roll of the
pontoon trains going down to the river
bank. 1t sounded like thunder in our
ears but they kept as dea d silence as if
they were all in enchanted sleep, till our
men had pushed off and fairly gotten the
bridge under way Then
81 don't know whether thev suspected
what we were at or not, or whether 1t was
part of their cursed strategy to get as
many targets as possible ulader fire but
when they did at last commence they
made sharp work of it, as well they
might, since, comfortably slowed away in
cellars and houses on the bank, they had
only to cut Us down at their leisure Shot
and shell fiom our batteries proved una
vailng; the city indeed was fired. but
the foxes were not unearth ed, and three
times our brave fellows were beaten back,
and brought their dead aud wounded up
the bank to eli the floors of the Lacy
House.
"By this time it was morning, and we
had procured train with solid shot from
Aqua . the rebels, who had stopped firing,
commenced again, and the light strug
CLING up showed US, as the sulphurious
cloud cleared away, Fredericksburg was
burning like second Moscow The solid
shot plunged through brick aud stone,
but fresh effort to lay the bridge proved
also uuavalling, the rebel sharp shooters
dropping our men like SO many nire-
pins.
Then it was that Burnside called Ior
volunteers, and the Seventh Michigan
and our regiment, (tne Ninereeth Massa,
chusstts) responded. As we marched
out, PhlI came quickly up to Mark Gif.
ford, his bro;her-in.law, who was at my
side.
"'You have wife and little child to
lcave,' he said. Il have none, aud never
shall. Let me go 10 your place. Wait
(as Mark was goiog to refuse) and hear
me. If you are obstinate will still so
| swear it, even if | swim after the boats;
SO there will be simply two to mourn for
in the old homestead if you persist
"He was in such desperate earnest,
and the time was so shert, for the reg-
meHt was already moving on, and Mark,
never SO resolute man as Phil, was so
taken by surprise that he stepped back,
and Phil took. the place by my side and
rushed on with US. As said Captain
Ward at Bunker Hill, when We went
down that bank | no more dreamed of
comiDg alive out of that rain of fire than
of going to heaven IN ElDah'a fiery char
lot. AS we crouched behind the boats
and the piles of lumb Der, the balls came 10
among us like hailstones Phil got
slight scratch, and ball carried off my
cap as if it had come expressly for it.
Not that we left all of the firing to the
rebels. We did a little sharp-shoo,ing
on our own account, quite respectable in
its way, and keeping them about as busy
as they KEEP: US, till our guns began to
speak again; then We pushed fer the
boats, got into them pell-mell, and made
off. Such crossingI 1t wasn't exactly
s sail by moonlight, I can tell you. |
neser imagined such a din possible, un-
less at the day of Judgment. Crack
oraoL from thoca deadly rihes and our