The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1912-05-02


Leesburg, where w e spent the
winter of 1862. 1t was a very
cold winter but we were comfort
ably situated in a good country
and had plenty to eat. Early in
March, 1862, we broke camp and
marched south, crossing the Rap
pahannock river on bridge. We
were accompanied by large con-
voy of beef cattle and big wagon
train of wheat. When we came to
the Rapidan there was no bridge
and we had to ford it; the wagons
also safely forded. The stream
was about as large as Bear Creek.
We camped near this ford, for a
week and 4 inches of snow fell
while we were there. While here
we got our first news of the battle
oe Shiloh. Several recruits came
to us at this place. l remember
the following who, came to our
company: Henry Flynt, John
Cantrell, James Bumpass, Jasper
Langford, Squire Hellu:ns and
others. When we left this place
it was with orders to march to
Orange Court House. There we
boarded a train for Richmond.
From Richmond, over the York
River r r we ran 80 miles to
West Point on York river where
we took a boat to Yorktown, 80
miles further on. The Yankee
general, Mcclellan had laid siege
to this historic Town with an inn
mense army and we were sent to
its defense. We reached the town
about sunset and were quartered
in some cabins that were filled
with vermin. This was our first
introduction to that great pest OF
/ camps > the body louse-which had
been left here by thousands. We
staid here about week, the Yam
KEGS shelling us every day. There
/ were no casualties in our immedi-
command but some were killed
and wounded in other commands
One day after it had been raining
it cleared off and we could see the
Yankees in the bay. One of our
company, Dan Joslyn, who had
| left his post when at Leesburg
and went back to the reserve, and
was asked why he ran off, said
because they snapped cannon at
him. He had been joked good
deal about this and on the day
mentioned, at Yorktown, when the
Confederate battery got ready to
fire, the fuse on one of the guns
did not ignite promptly, and when
it did made noise about like a
Flobert. Joslyn was nearby and
jumped up exclaiming: Now
| reckon you see cannon does
snap" At the end of about a
week we were moved back on a
line of battle and put to work
throwing up trenches. We were
here about ten days. Skirmishing
between our pickets and the ene-
my's was going on most all the
time. On the tenth night orders
were sent around whispering to
the sentinels to fall back to where
the command had been, it having
already fallen back. When we
reached the place every man was
ordered to open his knife and slit
the tents into tatters, completely
destroying them. This was be-
cause they were afraid to burn
them, because this would give
the Yankees notice that we were
retreating. Having destroyed the
tents, we followed the brigade as
rear guard. The rain was falling
and the roads were awful muddy
1t was dark as Egypt and it was
terrible march. We reached the
old town of Williamsburg about
daylight and halted in the suburbs
and lay down to sleep, at least l
did. We slept an hour, | suppose
when an alarm was raised that the
enemy was on us. ! got up and
rubbed my eyes and sure enough
here came regiment of Pennsyl-
,vania cavalry, called the Buck
tails. We were ordered to fire on
them as they came in columns of
fours and did so, killing many
horses and men. The survivors
fed Then we marched through
the town. Just outside we met
Longstreet's division of infantry
couptermarching to meet the en-
erny. In about two hours we heard
heavy firing in the rear and knew
that Longstreet's men were at
tacking the enemy. The firing
lasted two or three hours. We
had marched about a miles by this
time and halted Wounded Con-