Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1865-05-03
FROM THE iI,h REGIMENT.
IA friend in Cambridge sends US the
following which was addressed to him ]
CAMP NEAR BURKyILLE,
Va, Apr. ed, 1865.

not pnuer my own vine anu NJ ITee' pu'
on my own blanket in the camp. without
thinking, perhaps the next instant shall
be aroused by the shrek Of the shell or the
whistle of the bullet, and assure you l
find great deal of comfort in this feeling
of security feeling | have not felt be-
fore, except while at home, since May lst,
1864, when | joined the army of the Po-
tomac. care not how much bravery a
man may possess (by the way do not
lay claim to any more than is required,
myself.) it is by no meaos pleasant to
think every night when you go to sleep
that you may awake only to go into bat
tlc and every morning that before night,
the very ground you stand upon may be
red with human blood--possibly your
own. But now, all that is past, and it is
very pleasant to feel secure and think
there are no more battles to be fought, no
more precious blood to be shed upon the
altar Of our country to preserve her for
the glorious future that in my minds eye
l see slowly rising from the chaos of war
and bloodshcd.
cannot tell you anything new, prOba-
bly of the events which have transpired
since March 25th, when We had our first
engagement in this campaign.
AS you see the daily papers, and they
have very much more voluminous accounts
that it wonld be possible for me to give
in an ordinary letter, so will only say
that tried as best | could TO do my duty
all through and have been spared without
scratch. Three of my brave men have
given their lives to sustain the cause, four
have been wounded, including 1t. Macon
Der, and three taken prisoners.
April I'd was a glorious day, but no
one who did not expect to face the storm
of lcadcn hail we expected to meet, can
realize the terrible anxiety Of those hours
of waiting from twelve at night till the
gray of the morning, when we advanced.
The night was cold, the ground wet from
recent rains but we were obliged to lay
very close almost all of the time, as the
picket firing commenced very soon after
we got into position and perfect "fue de
cufcr" was kept up with very little loss
on either side, probably, but with the in
tention of keeping the enemy occupied so
that they could not ascertain our po-
sition, and in that think we succeeded
admirably.
have omitted to mention the terrible
cannonading which was maintained from
10 to | o'clock along the entire linc--ev-
cry battery taking part. We had in
our corps twelve four-gun batteries, and
all were as busy as could be, and so with
those of the I'd, and 9th corps. | have
never seen so many shells in the air al
one time as then. 1t being guile darh
they could be seen very distinctly de
scribing their brilliant and terrible curves
especially those of the shells from tn,
mortars.
think not less than 200 guns and
mortars were in use that night on oul
side alone some of these were responded
to, but not many of them, as all through
the campaign they have been very careful
of wasting artillery ammunition, indicat
ing quite clearly that they had not very
great amount in excess of what might b,
actually needed.
We'll after waiting till near o'clock
when the signal, gun from Fort Fisher
came, and the orders for advance wer
given, and on we went till VIC came to tn
breastworks occupied by our picket wher
we received the fire of the cnemy's pickle
and then for moment | thought th
whole movement would be a failure, 70
the officers and men all dreaded the at
tack for several reasons: first, it was s
nearly dark that we could not see wher
we were going, next, Immediately in from
of our Brigade we're two batteries who's
fire we expected every moment to receive
, thirdly, there were two liues Of abatti
which looked from distance to be yer
formidable although not really SO whe
: we got to them, fourtbly, were the breas
works which were Of considerable strengt
and for the fifth reason aud the stronpe,
!. one Of them all, we expected to find thel