The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-02-07
"Reminiscences Of the @ar
Continued on page A.

was in command of r. H. Anderson
of South Carolina, brave old man,
riding along behind US. At times the
noise was SO great we could not
hear any command. remember at
one time we were in the woods and
could not see far from us and we
halted to find out what was the
command and course to go. He was
at that time not more than fifty
yards behind us and he heard us ask
ing one another what the command
was, and he told US there was but
one command and that was forward.
At the same time he motioned his
hand to indicate straight forward.
We were about this time half
through the battle. Wet with per-
spiration, face and hands blackened
with powder and were a motley
looking set of men. Our ranks con-
siderably thinned out. But on we
went and by dark we had broken sew
en- lines of the enemy, taken the en-
tire camp, many pieces of artillery
and small arms and large number
of prisoners. Now this was our own
brigade, as to what other parts of
our army did I do not know. You
can learn that from History, but l do
know that if all other parts were car
ried out equally as we'll as our part
we have nothing to bragg about but
hard-headed determination to whip
the Yankees. They had the world to
recruit their armies from and could
afford to lose 10000 men better than
we could to lose one thousand. You
see I say we broke seven lines, and I
know this, I saw it with my own
eyes. Just think for a moment. One
line with no help the whole evening,
fighting under such great disadvan-
tages. Our loss was heavy, don't
remember, but it must have been
one-third of our number fell as we
fought those seven lines. We lost Our
colonel and many others, and we did
not have any more of their kind to
fill their places. Had we remained in
our entertainments and let the Yam
KEGS attack us, it would undoubtedly
have been better for US in every way.
1t was necessary at times that we
should attack them on ground of
their own choice, but our officers too
often over did the thing, in the first
part of the war Our Colonel who
was killed here was John Giles of
Union county A good and brave man
and we loved him and missed him SO
much. We quieted down then for
few days, as the old saying is, "There
is always a calm after storm.
have been under the impression
for q long time that the battle of
Seven Pines was fought in June, but
see from school History that it
was the last day of May, 1862. Now
l do not remember what occurred un-
til the latter days of June, and then
the seven days. fighting began. This
fighting was another surprise. Nc
Clellan was in front of Richmond
with large force, probably near or
quite 100000 men. Johnston being
wounded at Seven Pines, General Lee
was now in command of our forces,
which l learn from History was
about 100000 men, and was in front
of Richmond facing McClellan's 2OO,-
600 men. But Stonewall Jackson, up
in the valley was thrashing out the
Federal troops and before we knew
anything he was down near McClel-
lan's right wing. We were ordered
in line in the night, marched close to
McClellan's right wing and lay very
still under arms until day began to
break. We had no idea what was up.
Directly in front of us and apparent
ly in the rear of the right wing of
the Yankee line, we heard skirmish-
ing about a mile or more away. Now
we could easily enough understand
that there was some body of men
either in their rear or on their flank,
but no thought of Jackson with about
10000 men to help us whip the Sec
ond great army organized to crush
the so-called rebellion.
Now it was getting light enough to
see some distance away and we could
hear noise like a commotion among
the wagons and saw the enemy Civ
ing back in our front. About this
time the firing was getting very
heavy about one or two miles away.
We could tell by the firing that our
men, whoever they were, was driving
the enemy back fast. We crossed the
Chickahominy turned to the right in
line of battle and marched some dis
tance and we heard constant fighting