The National tribune., 1895-10-31
LAUREL, HILL.
Preseptiment Of q Poor Comrade That Led
To

Presentiment Of a Poor Comrade That Led
To Death.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: After the
battle of the Wilderness was ordered to re-
port to the commanding officer of the regi-
nent / was told to take 10 Of the 18th
u. S. and relieve Capt Parks on picket. II
the rebels fired, my men must fire; If they
cheercd, we must cheer.
j marched my men out it being in thick
woods, and reported to Capt Parks. 1t soon
became dark, but we had it quiet until near
IL o'clock, when an Orderly came down the
line and said:
"You must 90 up to the right of the line
and report to the commander of the picket"
l did so, and found the commander call
ing the number of the different regiments.
They all answered. / was the only nom
commissioned officer present. He told MS to
go back and have our men march back to
the breastworks in line, then to assemble to
the right without any noise. We did SO,
and marched quick time, but it was five
o'clock in the morning before we got inside
| our lines.
We came up with theSecond Corps. They
were camped beside the road We marched
all of the forenoon, and could hear firing
ahead Of us. My men got tired, and would
field Of battle had only one. We found q
strong provost-guard in line, and they
would net let anyone pass to the trent OF
raer, except regiments, 80 I and my man
joined regiment of volunteers and marched
| through.
| We formed line-of-battle and moved to
the front. After going a short distance
saw my regiment about half a mile to our
left front. They were on cleared bill, and
engaged with the enemy. / knew them by
the flag. So we baae adieu to the volun-
teers and started across the field. But be-
fore we got halfway there the man with me
| got wounded in the arm, and told him to
go TO the rear. Mimic balls were flying like
| hailstones, while nearly every minute shell
would go over our heads. i kept on double
quick and soon joined my regiment.
The men were lying down and firing as
fast as they could. / saw that my com pany
looked very small. The First Sergeant was
gone, so / took his place. l inquired of one
of the men what had become of the COM
pany. He thought they had all been killed.
After had been with the regiment about
an hour, it was relieved and went back and
formed in the second line. Before night the
men Of my regiment began to join us; there
were 40 in one crowd. They fell in all to-
geiher, and our commanding officer Capt
Grimes, made them a speech. We built up
fires, heated water in our tin clippers, and
washed out our guns. After dark We went
out and brought in our killed and buried
them.
We had it quiet all night, but firing COM
menced at daylight at the front May 10.
We were not called to take part in it until
afternoon. Then we went out in the same
place where we were the day before, staying
there two hours. The whole brigade broke
twice and ran nearly back to the second
line, bat formed each time and went back,
and were on the same line when they were
relieved. After we came back we moved to
the right and built breastworks. The fight
ing was kept up all day at the front, but
1t was quiet during the night. On the
morning of May II it was quite foggy and
there was not much firing. We were Or
dered to the front about noontime. We
went to the same place where we had been
the two days before, but someone had
thrown up a small breastwork, so we had
some shelter.
We stayed here four hours, keeping up
steady fire all of the time. / fred nearly
160 rounds. We had to send to the second
line for ammunition, and it was brought out
to us in sacks, the men going on their hands
and knees. We were relieved after being
there four hours. Capt. Grimes, our COM
handing officer, and Lieut.. Smith had been
wounded. Each company was growing
smaller every day.
That night before dark we moved half |
mile to our right and went into camp in the |
woods. 1t rained quite hard, 80 we pitched |
our tents. A man named Bickford and l |
tented together. We had whisky issued to |
us. After we went to bed BickfOrd asked |
me if l thought man ever had a PRESENT. |
ment of death. / told him no. He says:
" ran away the first day of this battle be-
cause l felt should be killed, and if 1 go
into battle Tomorrow / know / shall be-"
l told him to go to sleep; that the whisky
he had drunk had made him foolish.
We were awakened the next morning at
daylight by rebel shells flying through our
camp. We packed up as quickly as We
could, fell in, marched to the front and de-
ployed rs skirmish-line across field.
While crossing this field / saw them pick up
BickiOrd and carry him TO the rear. He
died before they got him to the hospital.
We crossed this field into pine woods,
where we met the rebels. Each man stood
behind tree and commenced firing but the
shot and she'll flying through the tree-tops
cut off the tops and they came down. If
they struck a man they killed him.
We stayed here until 10 o'clock that fore
noon, when the battle of Seven Days, May
TO IL, 1864, ceased. We marched back ont
Of the woods, having lost heavily. We had
one officer killed, and have forgotten how
many wounded. There were only three
officers present for duty, Capt. Parks, Lieuts.
Hopkins and Carter.-GEoRGE w. DEBECK,
geant, Co. A, LIST battalion, 18th I. S.
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