The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-02-07
"reminiscences of
The @ar-
Written In 1908 by B. p. Gregory, Sr. 5
10 his Son, W. 7. Gregory.
Continued from last weekly

we moved near Centreville and built
breast works and wintered there and
suffered great deal from cold
weather, too far north for us. But
we pulled through fairly well.
BY the way, you have heard me
speak OF my negro boy John, that
my father gave me. He was sharp
shrewed boy for negro boy. One
day while at Centreville there was a
good large number of prisoners there
in an old church. Some of us were
going over to take a look at them
and John asked me to let him 20
with me: | told him, ".All right,
come on" When we got there I had
forgotten John, but he was close in
behind me, while we were pushing our
way through the crowd to get a. view
of the prisoners, John was looking
over my shoulder and saw them
about the same time 1 did, and said,
"Marse Pick l swear to God they
look just like folks, don't thew"
Well all of us who heard him laugh
ed ourselves tired. l had a pain in
my side from laughing so much.
Well, we were nearing the end Of
our first twelve months. Our army
was still small compared with the
army of the North, who by this time
had organized and equipped a large
army somewhere in the neighbor-
hood of 100000 men or more and
were preparing to advance on Rich
mond from some ponit farther South.
We had to evacuate Centreville and
fall back to Richmond and prepare
to meet them. had a pair of boots
made at home sometime before this.
and they were rather small for me,
and had blistered my feet, so I was
detailed to drive two-horse wag-
on. On the morning we left Cen
treville I drove past Colonel Jenkins
and he told me to get him some
bread cooked on the road some-
where. I soon drove to a house on
ahead and told the lady what the
Colonel said and she said she would
have them ready in a few minutes.
The road was narrow in front of the
house and very muddy. General
Longstreet came riding along all
wrapped up so that his uniform
could not be seen and was by him
self and l had never seen him be-
fore. He says to me, "Drive that
wagon out of the road" 1 says to
him, I will not do it sir, there is
plenty of room for you to ride by.y
He says, "Get out so as those men
back there can pass" 1 looked back
and saw the head of the column close
I did not know him. When the men
marched up opposite me 1 asked who
that was riding on ahead. They told
me it was General Longstreet. Now
/ felt pretty cheap of my impudence
and l kept myself out Of his sight
the balance of the march % Rich
mond. In few days we arrived at
Richmond and were ordered to go
down to Yorktown to reinforce GeNb1
eral McGruder who had eight or niHe
thousand men, and he could not get
away from his Notifications without
reinforcement as there was a heavy
force in his front and the enemy
could land troops up the river and
cut him off from Richmond. So we
went down the James river on
steamboats, and landed and marched
to Yorktown. An old town, too, it is
the place where Lord Cornwallis
surrendered in time of the Revolu-
tionary war. And now our twelve
months time was out and we formed
new companies and some men from
Chester and some from Union form
ed together and made up good COM
pany by this organization. 1 was in
I" company "ilh oCNSIal VI
relatives which of course suited me
much better. In few days after
this we began our march toward
Richmond, the enemy following close
behind, so close that we had to stop
at Williamsburg and fight them and
it was hard battle for the amount
of men engaged. The Yankees were
landing troops at the same time
above us to cut us off from Rich
mond, and we had to divide our army
and fight them at both places. Here
was one of the worst hornets nests
l have ever been in. We had to sup
port battery just at the lower edge
of town in an open field. We formed
line of battle about twenty steps in
the rear of the battery and the ene-
my Immediately turned loose six
guns charged with grape and canis-
ter shot not more than four or five
hundred yards away and killed and
wounded nearly all the horses and
so many of the cannoneers were
killed and wounded that our battery
ceased firing, but no wonder, we only
had two guns against six. Now all
this time we were firing at them
with all our might, but did little
damage at that distance with the in
fantry firing, but they all the time
were giving us grape and canister,
tearing up earth in front of us,
knocking dirt in our eyes and occa-
sionally tearing some poor fellow to
pieces. Why we did not get away
from there when our guns ceased fir
ing and we at such q great disad-
vantage / never could see, but this
was ouI second fight and we had not
learned to take the advantage as we
should, consequently our loss was
much heavier than it should have
been. My captain was mortally
wounded there, his name was Tom
Dunn. | thought a great deal of
him, and in the evening nearly dark
the fight was over for the day, we
carried Tom Dunn up street, got him