Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-09-22
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]. ECHOES OF THE WAR. !.
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| thought it might interest some
one OF your readers to hear some
thing more OF the War Between the
States. The object of this sketch is
to give some facts about the Mary
land campaign. My recollection is
that the Army of Northern Virginia
struck tents and started on its march
for Maryland about the middle of
August, 1862, and, with the eXceI-
ton Of the Second Battle Of Manas-
sas, we crossed the Potomac with
out any hostilities. We f6rded or
waded the river at a shallow place.
1T was wide, with plenty of small,
slick rocks on the bottom, and
fellows feet were tired of slipping
on them before he got to land. We
went from there to the nearest point
on the railroad. We got to the rail
road at Frederick Junction. This
little town is on a small river
don't recollect its name. 1t was said
to be so miles from Washington.
We stayed there day or two and
destroyed the railroad bridge on the
river. l am not prepared to say
what railroad that was, only they
said it led to Washington. We left
there and marched through Hagers-
town and other small towns and
came to the mountains, and on Sun
day the Battle of South Mountain,
Maryland, was fought. This battle
was fought in September. The bri-
gade ] belonged to was not engaged
iii 1t. We We're in reach of the ar
tillery, however, and at dark that
night, l recollect, we were lying on
the roadside about the top of the
mountain. The weeds were large,
and the boys were all getting as
close to terra firma as they could
Some of our boys had a horse chat
was neighing very loud, and the
Yankees began shelling in the direc-
tion Of the sound. The shot would
come so close to us the wind of them
would move the weeds over us. /
could feel it plainly. / wished that
one shell might hit that horse, for |
knew it was the only way to put an
end to his noise. We got away from
there, however, and none of our
boys was hurt, nor that old horse
either.
We took the line of march that
night for Shepherds Town, but we
stopped at Sharpsburg, Md, and
there we had two days battle on
the 18TH and 10th of September,
1862. The most of the battle on the
18th was by or between the artil-
lery. A few infantry were engaged
on the 10th, and the whole force
was in a heavy battle and many
killed on both sides. My company
was on ridge whore we could see
the movements on 9TH sides. The
only time / ever saw the lamented
Fitzpatrick scared was in this bat
tie, when the brigade on our right
fell back from behind a rock fence
and caused the enemy to come close,
getting our right of way to Shep-
herds Town, where we intended to
cross the river back into Virginia.
But Gen. Drayton rallied his COM
mand, charged the enemy and drove
them back to their former position,
and by this we held our line. AS I
was going into this battle ball
tipped one of my little fingers and
knocked the nail black While in
this battle Ike Killbey and took
shelter and fired some rounds from
behind dead horse-anything in
time Of battle to save life.
| recollect that on the 18th day OF
September my company and others
were on picket duty. The line was
through field Of small corn. 1t was
little higher than mans head.
The enemy saw rs go into the corn
about the coming Of light in the
morning. They must have been 400
or 500 yards from us, and they be-
gan firing at us as soon as we came
in sight Of them. We had no pro-
lection only to keep still and hide
In the corn the best we could. The
enemy shot at us all day at will and
we had to stay in the corn and not
return fire on them. They shot the
cornstalk that my head was against
in two about six inches from my
head. This was one OF the worst
days | ever saw in the war. Some
one may ask, Why did you not
shoot? We had orders not to shoot.
We only wanted to hold the line
until our army could cross the
river. This day of picket duty was
the worst / witnessed in the war
The reason the enemy didn't kill all
OF us is that they could not see
where to shoot to hit us. We held
the line under their fire all day and
left at dark, and not a man of us
was hurt. This must have been
ruled by the hand of God. We
can't thank Him who was holding
our lives in His hands enough.
| have in most Of my articles
about the war said something of the
fun ] saw there, but when | look at
things as / now see them it is with
a serious thought. | can't say l
know Of vete, an who has given
God the glory he should have given
Him for sparing him to get home and
live down through all these years
into old age. Comrades, let's be
more thankful in the future.
Bill Singleton,
Co. B, Palmetto Sharpshooters,
S. G.. v.