The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-08-14

ul VIII Inv gtAlA7s -. r.
So we escaped Cedar Creek aS9aonth
later on tho memorable 10th OF Septem.
Der. They kept US trotting up and
down the valley, guarding supply trains
to the front, and We camped at Win.
chester, when the Johnies surprised
the boys Mt 3 in the morning, and ,tllsi
stead OF going up front we We're put IN
line across the pike to keep the strag-
glers back, who began to come in by
noon and reported everything all torn
to pieces. remember my feelings at
that time. Now, thought !, after all our
hard fighting and marching up and
down the vally, until we knew the val
ley pike Us well as some OF us knew the
Old Cumberland road from Wheeling to
West Alexander, It will all have to be
gone over again, and ! was tired fight
ing and marching. Leaning on my
musket with these gloomy feeling,
which were made worse by every squad
OF stragglers that came, suddenly Phil
Sheridan and three or four OF his stall
came riding up the pike from the direc-
ton of Winchester. He stopped at our
line and talked q short time with the
officers in charge, and to some OF the
stragglers, pulled the rim Of the small
black hat lie wore over his forehead,
and turning to the members OF his
staff quietly remarked, "Come on,
boys" and he started up the pike like
a black thunder.bolt, which he proved
to be, for it did not seem long until the
cannonading began and gradually grew
longer, deeper, deadlier than before,
and by the grace of God and Phil sheri.
dams help we did not have to fight that
ground over again. -,
We,were day late in that fight. The
next day we would have had our old
position in line, which was taken by a
Wisconsin regimont, whose "Co. ID"
lost nearly half the men in it.
| think we made some desperate
charges How about Piedmont when
the ground had been charged over three
times, and the 18th West Virginia was.
brought up to charge the angle, or center
of the rebel position. II was trying to
creep up through that clover field, lie
down a moment, to receive the enemy's
fire, then up and at them, without firing
a shot. We got them, took twice as
many prisoners as We ourselves num-
bered-but we lost Joe Halstead, Alex
Gilmore, Bob Anderson and Wesley
Hamilton, dead, and others wounded.
Bob Anderson would not lie down in
the clover field, but stood up and kept
loading and firing. He was not killed
then, but was later on, when they
turned on US and tried to drive us back.
was lying alongside IVES. Hamilton,
and when we were ordered up to charge
he did not rise. Ipunched him, saying,
ewes, get up" He did not, found
out afterward that he was shot dead,
the ball entering his head, an easy
way to die. Poor Joe Halstead, as
brave boy as ever bore the colors, The
was regimental color bearer)-his
hearts blood ebbed his life away.
have been over the ground since
and picked out the clover field and the
woods into which We charged. There
was not tree the size ora man but
had dozen bullet hGes in it. picked
out the spot where slept between two
dead rebels that night, to keep the
wind off me; had rebel, who had been
in the fight, show me around; filled my
pockets with apples from his orchard,
and spent two hours with him in talk
ing OF our marches; and, by the way,
it is much moro interesting to talk
with one of the boys on the other side
than to talk among ourselves of the
late war.
Who remembers the Saturday night
OF April /, 1865, before we made the
charge on Fort Gregg? Joshua Rey-
nolds was killed that day. While we
were building entertainments and keep
ing UP hell OF. a shooting, literally
until our guns got sd dtwe;eotfld not
hold them. As tlarlnes cain6ion, ac-
companied with fog and nisting rain,
we were ordered to throw away our tin
plates, cups and everything that would
make n rattle, and were marched and
massed six columns deep toward the
front, where we could hear the rebels
talk around their camp fires. We did
not relieve ourselves OF any extra accou-
trcments as at Winchester. A more
cold, chilly, indescribable night / never
passed through. Before daylight we
were ordered up, and before noon we
were in front Of Fort Gregg, near Peters
burgh, watching two unsuccessful
charges. 1t was not pleasant sight
that Sunday morning to see men
marched up to be cut down like grass
before tho mower, while We stood there
in plain view Of the two unsuccessful
attempts TO capture that historic fort,
the last, believe OF the war. To wit
ness scene OF this kind. is hard. To
make charge on the enemy without
knowing what We have to encounter is
hard enough, but to make charge
on the enemy's works when we had
witnessed the previous attempts to take
them, in which men had seemed to do
all that men could do, was certainly the
hardest Of wars work.
We were ordered forward from the
low hill on which we had been drawn
in line of battle. There was lull III
the firing. The groans Of the wounded
alone filled the air. The other forts
back OF Fort Gregg, who had got the
range and were helping the boys in the
fort, were quiet now, waiting our next
move. We crossed the ravine. marched
up the slope. Our alignment was not
as correct as when we gave the zouave
drill in front Of the court house in
Wheeling, after the return from the
war, but We went up that hill as prompt
" rs ever we marched to the dinner
table at n Sunday school picnic, al
though Fort Gregg was sending out its
grape and canister, The surrounding
forts were dropping their shot and
bursting she'll among us. while the rifle
balls with their quick whistle and thud
struck death into many u brave heart
The ground was soon thickly strewn
with blue coats. l passed Jim Caldwell
a,,J MI poss siruct, 1n,,,p with t,rnnn