The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-03-07
GA CLOSE CALL
An Exciting Incident Of the Battle
of Fredericksburg.

CALI during Inc war ASKED re-.
porter Of . prominent clerk in the
PostofGce Department who served
in Hancock's old division of the
Second Corps.
"Close call?" Yes, several. We
bad them nearly every day from
'6I to 49, but the closest call / ever
had was at Fredericksburg, when
General Burnside ordered an attack
on Narve's Heights. Our division
was in the advance and lost more
men that day than the balance Of
the troops engaged on the right
wing. When my regiment fled
out of the streets Of the
town We mustered 21S, and that
night only twentyseven answered
roll.call. All were not killed. but
every msn left alive outside of the
twenty.eeven showed wound. l
was one of the mum Der who re-
spOnded at muster after the fight. 1
will tell you the story of my ex-
perience that day. Directly after
we left the streets to make the at.
tack ! felt a tug at the haversack by
my side, but was too busy looking
ahead to inve, tigate the cause. Next
came q decided jerk under the left
arm, and upon examination q hole
was found through both my coate-
for it was winter, December 18th,
1862. The j onnies' bullets did not
touch my clothes again until We got
within fifty yards Of the stone
wall, at the base Of the hill, under
the line of Marye's man.
sion. The fire from the three lines
of battle of the enemy-One at the
top, one at the side aid one at the
foot of the ridge-bad been steady
all the way up the slope from the
town; but when we reached the
vicinity of the wall, and it appeared
We were carrying everything before
us. the jaws of hell seemed to open
on both sides. I never was 10 such
q fire, from Bull Run to Appomat-
tox, as we experienced that mo-
ment Bullet, or pieces of shell
seemed to be strikir G everything
absVe ground near where we stood
in line, and one by one our men fell
dead or wounded. A small board
fence in our front disappeared In
splinters in less than half an hour.
A splinter from this fence struck
me across the bridge of the nose
and eyelids, and made the blood
fly for second or two. It
was only a scratch, but l thought
at the time that half my head was
gone, and concluded to lie down and
calmly await the approach OF death
inst then a piece of shell took { fl
my right coat tail. This fastened
the movement into horizontal posi-,
ton on the ground, from which l
did not stir until darkness put
stop to the slaughter. exceps to
crawl up a few feet closer to the
hub of an old wagon wheel that had
been stuck in the ground probably
for years. The rains of many seasons
had washed the earth down hill
against the hub, and 1t afforded an
excellent protection for my wounded
(?) head. Once, and only once, did
[ venture to look out of this haven
of rest, and then Southern gentle
man behind that memorable stone
wall TOOK the cap off my
head with bullet from his
rife. God only knows where
that cap went, for [ never
looked for it again. After this q
bullet lodged in my knapssck, which
was exposed above the wheel hub.
The spOkeS of the wheel were ell
knocked out. In fact, the members
of the opposition behind the wall
shot off their guns at everything
within range until they got tired,
and the line of blue coats was 80
still that there seemed to be no lie
in 1T. Some few were crowded be-
hind brick house short distance
off. These were the only men who
appeared to be alive, and toward
the last all their energies were ap-
parentIy devoted 10 keeping under
cover of the house.
Just at this time new danger
appeared in our rear. A green regi~
ment, over whose backs we marched
into the fight that morning, opened
fire on the enemy, as they thought,
but their range was too low,
and the bullets from their
guns were striking along our
position and finishing the work
Of destruction. My place of shelter
and that behind the house was open
and exposed to this fusilade. One
of the first bullets fred by this regi
ment caught In the hollow of my
right shoe and tore off the heel.
This was the only damage done me
by these blundeiiDg volleys, but
many of our men were killed by
the shots from behind. The know.
ledge that fellow is tetween two
fires is not pleasant, and for nearly
three long miserable hours we
waited for night to relieve US from
our awkward position. 1t was by
this fire from the rear that our gal
liant admiral was damaged in the
way that / have mentioned.
when darkness came On the few
who had strength to move crawted
down to the city. A tall old veteran,
who had followed General Scott
through Mexico, and who was then
a member of my company. was