The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-22
HOW YANKEE SLEPT DURING THE BATTLE And Then Had to Run for
 Dear Life TELLS HIS OWN TALE
Did Not Find His Regiment Until Late in the Night, But He Finally Reached His
 Friends
rom the Springfield Republican.

From the Springfield Republican The boys in blue in the civil war did
 not always face the enemy without turn I ing tall, thus Illustrating the old saying, He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day." and one of the | local veterans tells a remarkable story of his own experiences in this respect at l the battle of Williamsburg on May O. 1862
 Orders were given to advance early on | the morning of May D. and the army reached a point before Williamsburg at about o'clock, Hooker's division being directly in front of Fort MaSruder. the principal fortress in the outer line of Richmond's defense. The fort was
 flanked by line of redoubts extending
 across the peninsula from the James
 river to York river "The ground in front I of the fort" says the Springfield man.
 was open and level, but further to the front it was heavily wooded. This timber l had been slashed down to Impede the progress of the union troops and Hook I CTS division formed in line of battle in this fallen timber and then advanced to the edge of the open ground within range l of the enemy's artillery. but out of range | of their musketry Our artillery was posted just beyond the edge of the tim- l Der and opened fire with the infantry supporting 1t immediately in the rear.
 Soon the enemy's shells were hurt
 ling among the fallen timber and we
 were ordered to lie down and cover
 ourselves behind tree trunks as we'll l. ( only a general line was preserved, al- though all were ready to fall In at l a moments warning. I selected a par | ticuarly large tree trunk for my cover,
 some 10 or 15 yards in advance of the general line, and behind this I lay
 down. taking off my knapsack and us- 1 ing it for a pillow. I was not fully
 recovered from by wound of the year before and was exhausted from the
 24 hours duty and the long march with 1 the heavy load. and after an hour or two I fell asleep, although the battle
 was raging. l | "I never knew how long I slept, but
 it must have been an hour or two. l When I awoke I stood up and looked
 about me. The rain had ceased and
 heavy fog mingled with the smoke l hung over the field, but curiously it did not quite extend down to the
 ground and by stopping I could sec
 under it. None of my regiment nor
 any other was in sight. but out in front
 about 50 yards off was the battery
 which we had been supporting, sew eral guns dismounted, carriages and | caissons wrecked and great number of horses lying dead on the ground Scattered about among the wreckage
 were about 20 men with muskets in
 their hands and gray overcoats on. | Now, my regiment and another regi- | r1an in he m pa Ia We xyp ri
 gray overcoats, and it never occurred | to me for moment that the. men were
 not of these two regiments So l shout
 ed to them, Do you belong to the -
 regiment? and greatly to my surprise their muskets went up to their shoul-
 ders and they yelled, Come in here, you
 Yankee As I have said, I was only three months out of Libby prison, and the only thing l thought of was the dread of going back there, so I grabbed
 my musket in one hand and my knap sack in the other and started to run
 for the rear.
 "If the way had been open probably
 I would have run in a straight line
 but in the timber l zgzagged about jumping over, crawling under or run
 ming around fallen logs, so that when
 they zfred at me. not bullet touched
 me But l thought I heard a million
 of them about by ears I was scared |
 hung to my musket, and, with my wet
 oyercoat Tapping about my legs con-
 tinued to run, utterly demoralized and
 with only one thought--to get away. l If the enemy had had breech loading | or magazine guns they would have l fired again and probably would have got me. But as they were armed with only muzzle loaders, it took time to 1 load again and this was my salvation. | T did not realize that sI had got into
 a zone of safety and kept on a half mile more, when I ran into line of cavalry l deployed in the rear of our line to drive 1 up straeglers, of which there were a great
 number, as always happens with en
 army-men who had fallen out before getting to the front and others. who had skulked behind and still others who had gone back to help the wounded. It seems | that the battery which we had been sup porting had been put out of action and
 that the enemy had turned She flank ok
 Hookers division, and my regiment and l brigade had been hurried over to reinforce the left, so that when I awoke I was alone.
 "Officers of the cavalry had rallied
 about 10Oo men and after getting into an l open space organized them into a regi- ment under officers of the cavalry and
 non-commissioned officers among the stragglcrs. An officer barangued them for a few minutes. installing enthusiasm into | them and then we went forward to the
 battle line, and there we fought until darkness came and ended the battle. I | spent the greater part of the night hunt l Ing abour trying to find my regireent and
 i. was nearly morning when I discovered l It. If I had not come across this cav a fFTF 1.r.