East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1864-06-01
FROM TIE asa REGIMENT.
CAMP 23D MIcH, SEAR CRNrREyILLE,
ETAwEx RIVER, GA May 2lst

DEAR FRED.-l wrote you very hast
ily from Huslan's Cross Roads--On
the Nth, a terrible battle in which
the Odd was engaged, opened about l
z. NJ, and closed at 8. Tho whole
23d corps was engaged. From sunrise
until L was ON the skirmish line |;
the regiment was in terrible place
and lost heavily, but many were saved
by lying down in the stream and un-
der its banks. The charge made at
that place, before our guns were in po-
sition to play upon the enemy, was
undoubtedly a blunder. No regiment
was so efTectually "dumped, ITO use
the language of our Colonel-as our
own, but being in the first Of an adj
vancing line, there was no alternative
but to move fruitlessly down todestruc-
ton. That so many ayerted their APP
parently memorable fate, seems posi-
bic only by the interposition of Divine
Providence. When lying down, as
they were ordered after passing thro'
the shower of shot and shell which
greeted them from the artillery and
massed forces of the enemy in the
breast works, hardly a man of the
regiments beside and behind them
could be seen. There were no cow
ardly spirits in that division, but dis
erection had prompted a resort to cover,
whento dootherwise must provea most
fruitless and reckless defiance Of dan
ger.
The 1lS Ohio lost 90 men, ours So
killed and wounded The second
charge was made at the same place,
under the same or worse circumstances
by the same division--as soon as the
scattered forces could be collected =
Our regiment went down this time
with only eighty men. Why this
second demonstration time may tell
The Division Commander ordering it
has been relieved of his command,
whether Justly or unjustly, the future
must determine. Many of our poor
fellows lay there half covered in the
stream until after dark, others not in
jured lay with them, waiting for and
hearing no orders, the dead and dying
around them. At night all was still
Next morning our corps was reliev-
ed by the 18th, which fought all day,
with the aid of artillery taking the
| first and second line of the enemy's
works and some guns. Our corps
after rest, went to the left to support
Hooker's Doth. Just as we reached
them hundreds Of wounded were COM
ing from the field in ambulances and
on foot, their wounds all visible, some
in the face, others through the shout
ders, arms, legs and hands, in every
conceivable form, and every vulnera-
bic locality; they had just charged
across the field and taken battery
With all their suffering they were as
jolly as soldiers could be, and that is
pretty jolly. Our three divisions that
evening did glorious work in captur-
ing the enemy's works.
We were sent out on picket on q
new line without any guide; about lO
o'clock, we had formed our skirmish
or picket line on the loft Of Gen. Ho-
vey's command, when the enemy com
menced series of desperate charges
upons us, both here and at the point
where we left the ith corps. They
were repulsed with terrible slaughter
to the enemy. Our guns raked them
right and left at the point of our yes
terday's fight, and at this over six hun
dred Of their dead were left upon the
ground, this evening they skedaddled
leaving their strongest position in
Georgia, and one Of which Johnson
said if he could not hold it he would
surrender. We have followed in hot
pursuit up to this time, passing through
their camp, where they left their
wounded, and down the railroad, fol-
lowed by the locomotive and train
bearing materials for q bridge over the
Conesaga and Hasawatha, consid-
cradle streams, both bridges having
been burned by the retreating enemy.
They are already rebuilt, and the train
with supplies runs to Cassville Station,
only six miles back.
For the last ten or twelve miles the
enemy had built many breastworks, to
leave us as soon as built. At creek
here near the Etawah river they were
pressed so hard by our cavalry and
artillery, that they had no time to dis
troy fine bridge, but the one crossing
the Etawah they had burned. We,
somewhat fatigued by such continued
effort, halt here until the Odd, and
then march again in fighting trim.
The north of Georgia is in a great
measure a Wilderness, but Astounding