The Monte Vista journal., 1907-01-26
fortunately the Gre had not reached

fortunately the IRE had not reacHed
my coat. There was some firing on
the picket line through the night.
ny ten o'clock the next morning or.
ders came to be in readiness to march
to the front at a moments notice.
Cen. Lew Wallace to whose command
we belonged, was on the top of hill
near u.s. and aids were galloping their
horses to and from the position he oc.
Cupied. In the afternoon our regiment
and the first Nebraska We're ordered
to advance on a road along a ridge
toward the front, where we had heard
considerable firing. We met an Iii
nois regiment that had been engaged
time saw wounded men being carried
or on stretchers and in ambulances.
| remember one OF the Illinois boys
saying to us:
Boys, you'll catch -! We've
just come out Of there, and our regI-
mcnt Is all cut to pieces"
We had not advanced much over n
quarter Of a mile along the ridge when
the balls began to go zip. zip. through
the branches Of the trees and the uu.
derbrush near MS. We Immediately
filed to the right in line Of battle
across the end Of a hollow, halted. and
faced toward the enemy. the first Ne
braska being put in position about ten
yards in front OF us and a little lower
down the hill
They Immediately opened fire on
/ the cunfedcratos. while our regiment
was ordered to reserve its fire. The
/ Coufederates, Mississippi and Texas
regiment, with a battery. returned the
/ fire. They oycrshot us mostly but We
] had IL or 20 men wounded and ouT
| boys could be restrained no longer,
| and began 10 load and FIRE rs fast "a
[ they could, delivering their fire over
/ the heads Of the Nebraska regiment.
] I'll venture to say that neither the
/ Nebraska boys nor the confederate
were In much danger from some Of
our firing, for | observed that some of
them fired much as II they were shoot,
| ing squirrels in the tops Of the trees
/ AS the leaves on the undcrbFush and
the butternut uniforms Of the cOnfcd
crates were nearly the same color, II
was difficult to see the latter, but their
balls whizzing about US convinced us
. that they were there, In less than
half an hour we had driven them from
their position and their firing ceased
What our feelings We're as We wore
marching TO the front for the first
time, and how rciuiccd we We're over
our first victory there are few old sol
diers here, perhaps, who do not know
better than any Of us can tel.
That was on Saturday. That even
ing We moved little farther to tn,
front and biyouaCEed for the night
The next -Sundly-bclor,
We moved again to the froat | tool
the opportunity to look over III,
ground where the battle had been 20
ing on the day before. The under
brush and saplinEs were shiycrcd viii
the balls Here was a cartridge box
there a broken muskot; a few stcu,
further on knupsack torn in shrods
and letters writing paper and som,
articles of clothing scattered about
here bnyonct and there n soldier
hat. cantcen with a bullet hul,
through It, crumbs of hardtack scat
tered about, etc.
About nine or ten o'clock We had or
dcrs to move to the front, for the pur
pose, as We understood. to charge ol
the fort. As We went forward anon
the cutdowu snplings that were IN
tended by the cOnf"deratos 10 impod'
our advance We frequently came {,
dead confoloratos. After froqucn
hHlts We came In sight Of the for
across an open held few hundred
yards to the front We were momon
tarily expecting the order to charr,
on II, when. to our great delight, ",
saw white ilnF raised on the works
Word soon came Of the 'unconditiona
surrender" and We marched into thD
little village Of Dover. mile or b,
above the fort. We went ON board IN
transports that night and the ncN
day were quartcrod In the fort, whor
". remained until We went up III
Tennessee, Ia pittgburg Landing