Belding banner., 1916-11-22

wood and the "rebs" attacked them.
They held their ground, however, and
lust at night charged the rebel picket
posts and drove them In.
Wednesday, December IL, 1864.
Slept we'll last night, as 1t was
warm and we had hay under US. This
morning i went up to headquarters
and helped put in q wagon tongue.
Took a bath this morning and chang
ed my clothes, but as we had no wood
had to hire them washed. 1t was
very muddy, so did not do much but
sit around and sew, etc. Orders
came to move at six o'clock In the
morning.
Thursday, December Is, 1864.
We were routed out at four o'clock
this morning. Got breakfast and ate
it; then began to load and pack up.
We were obliged to leave several ar
ticles behind on account Of trans
portation. We got orders last night
to turn our wagons and teams over
to the third division, and it was
somewhat amusing to see the boys
take their pick of the wagons, mules,
harnesses. etc. The teams were
hitched up as best we could with
strange mules and not the best of
harness and taken over. At seven
thirty were drove out, but soon had
to wait for an hour for other trains
to get in. 1t was foggy so we could
not see what movements the troops
were making. We moved to the
right of our line, going west, and
went into camp about two miles west
of the penitentiary, just in the rear
of our line of works, and behind a
high hill, about ten o'clock. The ar
tillery began to timber up by this
time. The troops soon passed out to
the front, and large body of cavalry
formed in column in the rear of the
works. About noon l went up to the
top of the hill in front, which was
covered with spectators, to see the
fight, which was now getting pretty
warm, but was still chiefly an ar
tillery duel. We were told that the
cavalry had charged the rebels to
our left; cut their line in two; taken
two guns and their works, and were
still pursuing them. In our front,
about a mile away, we could see the
smoke of our batteries puff out at
every discharge; then a small cloud
of smoke in the air over the rebel
battery. The rebels would reply,
lnClC
were six of our batteries in sight and
five of the rebel works. About 2:3O
there was a lull from the rebel bat
teries, and we could see dark lines of
troops moving across the open fields
towards the rebel works. Slowly
but surely they advanced; now in
sight; now lost behind the timber.
Soon we could hear a faint report of
musketry, and see a light smoke as
cend from along the lines, which soon
became invisible because of the
smoke. But hark! we hear them
cheer-they have taken the rebel
works; the guns and the fort are
surely ours. Thus movements were
transpiring along our front, while at
our left the batteries were firing
away at each other. At 2:30 | saw
a train passing out and one coming
in. / went down to the pike and
found out that it was our train going
out and a "johnnies" train coming
in. One "johnny" wanted to know
how much our men were going to
pay them for driving team for us;
while another swore they would lick
us yet. The train was loaded with
forage, camp equipage and ammuni-
ton, and was captured few miles
out by the cavalry. / now went out
with our train which followed the
pike for a mile or more, then turned
to the left (south) and went through
fields, gardens, across creeks, up
and down hills, until some time after
dark, when they came near the lines,
and on to a pike which ran south
west from the city, and five miles
out from town. Here we again park
ed; watered and fed. We heard that
our men have taken nine guns on this
end of the line today, and that the
colored troops have done still better
on the left, and have driven the
rebels as far as they have here.