Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-04-01

L
issued if any one deprecated on private
property he should be tried by q
court martial forthwith. From there we
passed.through:several little towns (the
last was Salem) before we reached
Gettysburg where we lost heavily. My
company the first days fight had four
wounded and one killed by the ex-
plosion of one shell. w. c, Jones was
the one that was killed When we left
there we stopped over at Waynesboro
nearly all day and marched in the
night pitching camp between Waynes-
boro and Shepherdstown, and the next
day we went to the latter and camped
near it for several days. then we re-
crossed the river on pontoons at Falling
Water. Here we lost some men-taken
prisoners. Among them was our Cap
tain. Gen. Petigrew was killed, and his
brigade was commanded by Gen. Kirk
land after that. Capt. Dunaway was
kept in prison until the close of the
war. After crossing the river we cam
ped near Bunker Hill. Here Col. B.
resigned because the lieutenant colonel
was promoted over him as brigadier, for
he (Gen. Walker) had never been with
the regiment after the seven days fight
around Richmond, he was slightly
wounded there. After that we were
known as Walkers brigade, for such
was his name. We left the Valley and
came down in Orange county,
Some time in October our troops
made a move on the Federal line and
they fell back towards Manassas and
our division caught up with them near
Goose Greek. At least two brigades,
Cooks and; Kirkland's were cut up
right badly, as they charged the Van.
KEGS on railroad cut. We lost eight
pieces of artillery. All of us that had
passed through the different campaigns
knew who was to blame, but ! am not
going to say. We fell back across
the Rappahannock and tore up the
railroad from there to the Rapidan.
Sometime in November Gen. Meade
came over the Rapidan but we had no
general engagement: some sharp-shoot-
ing and little artillery duel. We re-
mained in Orange county until some
time in December, when the division was
ordered off and sent to Buffalo Gap,
and from there they went to Mount
jackson in the Valley. / did not go
with them to Buffalo Gap. The Doc
tor would. not let me go, as he had just
operated on my foot, but sent me
to the hospital, which was my sec
ond time and last during the war.
The first time was after the Cedar
Mountain fight. when / had bilious fe-
YER and was there about three weeks.
/ went to the regiment, which was
camped near Mount Jackson. Some
time after that we moved up the Valley
and camped near Taylor's Springs, east
from Harrisonburg. We stayed there
until the first day of March and crossed
over the mountain at Browns Gap
That day it rained. hailed, sleeted and
showed on us. Six of US went to a ne
gro quarter and paid the old negro man
one dollar apiece to let US in and keep
up good fire that night, and we had q
good nights rest. From there we went
down to Orange county and there We
camped until General Grant came over
the Rapidan river and we met him in
the Wilderness. Our division was the
one that opened the fight and we broke
three lines before we were stopped.
Our brigade was on the extreme right.
There was q space between our brigade
andl Gen. Cooks and we fell back and
moved by the left flank and formed on
his right, and about night Gen. Wilcox,
who was commanding Gen. Pender's
division (Gen. Fender having been
killed at Gettysburg) came in and re-
lieved us and we fell back about one
hundred yards and built a little
breastworks, but it was not very high,
for we were not allowed to cut any
timber. At daylight the enemy began
to advance, and Gen. Wilcox's division
was pressed back and passed over us,
We holding the enemy back on our
front. Gen. Walker, our brigadier, be-
ing just in the rear Of our company,
heard him say, "Fall back, men," was
very much surprised for they were not
coming any closer to US. they being
about rs yards from US. Looking up
the line found he had a cause for
such an order, for at the point where
they were giving way troops were un-
der heavy infilading fire, and those
that were able to go left in q hurry.
Our staff officers were riding back and
forth begging the men to rally. saying
to them that Gen. Longstreet would be
on their flank in few minutes. But he
had taken the wrong road. ! suppose
we had fallen back about two or three
hundred yards when ] saw his troops
coming down the road at dou-
BILE quick, Gen. Field in front. He
had been promoted and was in COM
mand Of Gen. Hoods old division, it
being !his first fight with them. They
were Texas troops. He swept down
his line and said to them, 'I don't say
60 ahead, but come on" and with that
he dashed ahead and drove the en-
emy back. That day was the first time
we had seen Gen. Field since he was
wounded. He rode over after the bat
tie to the portion of the line where we
were stationed.
On the night of the sixth we were
moving cautiously along the line and on
our extreme right there was yell that
came down the line and with the yell
some.cried out, ''Grant is wounded We