Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-05-17

stances" said Hancock quietly, 81
could not have offered it," Hancock's
men had also captured twenty guns,
ands of small arms, and thirty battle
flags. The guns were Immediately
turned upon the enemy, who was fol
lowed through the woods toward
Spottsylvania Court House till the pur-
suers ran up against another line Of
entertainments, which had been con-
structed in the night across the base
of the salient. At the same time that
Hancock assaulted at The apex, Warren
and Burnside had assaulted at the
sides, but with less success, though
their men reached the breastworks.
Lees Desperate Move.
Lee understood too we'll the danger
of having his line thus ruptured at the
center and poured his men into the sa-
lient with determination to retake it,
for which some of his critics have CEN
sured him. Hancock's men, when the
pressure became too great for them,
fell back slowly to the outer intrench-
ments, and turning, used them as their
own. Five times the confederates at
Se1ShSu oASoO IA hOoNJ 1hdOoCo, anu NV
times were repealed with bloody loss.
Before, they had been at disadvan-
tage from defending salient and now
sailing re-entrant angle. To add to
the slaughter, Hancock had establish
ed several batteries on high ground,
where they could fire over the heads
Of his own men and strike the enemy
nov IL -
face Of the angle, the fighting was kept
UP all day, and was most desperate
and destructive. Field guns were run
up close to the works and fired into the
masses of confederate troops within
the salient, creating terrible havoc;
but in turn the horses and gunners
were certain to be shot down. There
was hand-to-hand fighting over the
|Ibreastworks and finally the men Of the
two armies were crouching on either
side of them, shooting and stabbing
through the crevices between the logs.
Sometimes one would mount upon the
works and have loaded muskets passed
up to him rapidly, which he would fire
in quick succession till the certain
bullet came that was to end his ca.
reer, and he tumbled into the ditch.
In several instances men were pulled
over the breastworks and made pris-
oners. One doughty but diminutive
Georgian officer nearly died of mortifi-
cation when a huge Wisconsin colonel
reached over, seized him by the collar
and in a twinkling jerked MIN out of
! the jurisdiction of the confederacy and
into that of the United States
/ fighting around the death angle" as
the soldiers called it, was kept up till
past midnight, when the confederates
finally withdrew to their interior line.
The dead were not only literally piled
in heaps, but their bodies were terribly
torn and mangled by the shot. Every
tree or bush was cut down or killed by
the. balls, and in one instance, the
body of an oak tree nearly two feet in
diameter was completely cut through
by bullets and in falling injured sever
al men of South Carolina regiment.
Not even Sickles' salient at Gettys-
burg had been SO fatal as this. If
courage were all that nation required
there was courage enough at Spottsyl-
vania, on either side of the intrench-
ments, to have made a nation out of
every state in the union
Burying the Dead.
1t was extremely difficult for either
side 10 resume or care for any of the
wounded A note from Colonel Leander
! w. Cogswell, of the Ninth, New Hamp
shire Regim ent, gives q suggestive In
cident: During the night of the 18th
as officer of the day, was ordered to
| take detail of men from our brigade
and, if possible, find the dead bodies OF
members of the Ninth Regiment. We
went over the intrenchments and into
that terrible darkness, under orders 'to
! strike not a match, nor speak above 6
! whisper When near the spot where
they fell, we crawled upon our hands
1 and knees and felt for the dead ones
( and in this manner succeeded in find
Ing upwards OF twenty, and conveyed
them within our lines, where, with {
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