The National tribune., 1905-11-30
SOLDIERS LETTER HOME.
Interesting Account Of the Battle Of
Gettysburg Written to His Parents by
. COmrade After the Victory.

Comrade After the Victory.
by a soldier to his parents few days
after the battle Of Gettysburg. The let
| ter is too long-and too wide-to pub
| fish entire. 1t is dated I'm Camp near
Warrenton Junction, Va, July 81.
1862" covers four pages closely writ
ten, each page Is in length equal to
the width of seven and a quarter col
umns of The National Tribune and as
wide as four and three-quarters COL
umns. 1t goes into details of the march
from Virginia to Gettysburg: through
the battle, and the return march. We
than that part concerning Gettysburg;
which is given for it's individual inter-
est, not because of it's value as a basis
for historic review. The letter was
written by T. NJ. Mozingo, of the 18th
Ind, Second Brigade (Cutler's) First
Division, First Corps Comrade Mo-
lingo now lives in Corinth, Ky-Ed.l
Having recounted the events Of the
march from Virginia, the letter pro-
ceeds:
ION July we started, with orders to
join the brigade Immediately which
orders we obeyed as fast as we could
travel. We reached the vicinity of
Gettysburg at o'clock. Our corps had
been engaged all day. and our corps
and our brigade very badly cut up
killed, wounded and taken prisoners.
We marched over on the right in the
face of the enemy, but they did not do
us much damage. We lay down be-
hind some bushes and remained there
until night; then moved up on high
hill, further to the right, where we
| commenced building breastworks.
when a man is in such a place as
that he will work as hard as he can,
to build breastworks to save himself.
We worked in reliefs and got up pretty
good works and moved into them.
Before that Co. A was sent out on
detail of four men from each Of the
other companies sent to, our front as
! skirmishers and to keep a lookout
There was scarcely any force on the
battlefield, only the First Corps. Our
regiment was on the extreme right.
About l o'clock or 2 o'clock the rebels
sent a Lieutenant and six men to find
cur pickets The six men went back
without the Lieutenant. Co. A was on
the watch, and captured him. 1t raised
quite panic among us; some of the
boys got frightened from their sleep.
Anything that way will scare man at
night worse than at any other time.
All of us thought that the rebels were
close at hand; but after we got awake
we were all right and lay down again
to sleep and got up the next morning
early and got a little breakfast.
1--WE could then begin to see what
kind of place we were in. If the
rebels had known what our force on
the right was they could have sent a
brigade and have captured our entire
regiment. We were In a very dangerous
place. There was a strip of land for a
mile and half on our right by which
they could have reached our rear; but
r. n m ho tr1er nf Tfr1x
they could not trouble us from that di-
rection, for the Twelfth Corps joined
our right and at once went to work
building their breastworks, and good
ones, too.
There was nothing going on on our
right-nor on our left-until about 1880
o'clock, when the rebels commenced on
the left-then on the right and on our
front; but they did not shell us any,
except few shots at random. They
shelled the batteries all the time. with
out much loss on our side.
when the sun began to get low, and
the cool of the evening to come, we
could see the rebs advancing on us, and
we were ready for them. They began
again to throw a few shells at our bat
teries. We could see their infantry filing
out of the woods about a mile away. Our
batteries began to play on them: then
the roar Of cannon began! All this
u
The whole country was in a steady roar.
both cannon and musketry. You could
hear nothing but cannon-the sharpest
cracks. Then the roar and the mus
kerry began down the hill on our right.
THE rebels made a charge and start
ed up to our works with a yell, and our
brave boys stood by their works and
gave them volley after volley! And it
got SO interesting that 1t was every man
for himself; and there was scarcely a
lull in the noise, but a continuous roar
until o'clock, when all ceased for the
night. "s
Il am a little ahead of my time in
our front. The rebels advanced toward
us and then turned toward our left, on
our batteries, posted on a high hill and
supported by plenty of infantry. They
| charged and charged on the batteries;
but the artillery poured the grape and
canister into their ranks SO thick and
fast that they could not stand it, and
fell back and left their dead where they
fell.
1--WE lay all night with our guns in
our arms. The next day was my birth
day. In the morning early the rebels
began again and charged on our right
with the expectation Of driving us from
our breastworks, and succeeded in gain
ing the works in one place, but with
fearful loss.
| "All this time fighting was going on
| on our left. Our artillery was posted
| 80 that it could throw shells over us
and the woods we were in and into the
enemy and they did them considerable
damage. Limbs were torn off the trees
| and sometimes shells would go through
the bodies OF trees and cut them down.
| This lasted till about o'clock in the
| morning. Then the rebels began to
waver, and fell back and left the field
in our hands. They left their dead and
many wounded.
I'VE watched their movements, TAX
| ing care Of our wounded, then theirs.
In the afternoon it began to rain a lit
| tie. Our brigade was ordered to the
center and relieved those supporting
the batteries. and we lay there all
| night.
ION July we went up on the hill in
the graveyard and stayed there some
time. then were ordered into town and
there stacked arms in the street, and
| one OF Co. ID boys was wounded by a
| sharpshooter. We were there about
| half an hour and were then ordered
| back to our old breastworks and went
| w there and got something to eat: at
| ter which a detail from the regiment
| was made to bury the dead. l was one
| of the detail.
1--WE went to the ground In front OF
| part Of our brigade and Of the Twelfth
| Corps. We got blankets that the rebs