The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1921-10-26

saw out first dead soldiers and at this
moment we began to realize what war
was. Next day we were put on the
the thunder Of cannons and guns. Sure
enough this was war; then we could
see them bringing back our dead and
wounded comrades, and we'll l remem-
Der as we were resting on the road
side and seeing the wounded, there
was one boy with his leg shot off, and
grooming with the pain and from loss
of blood. put my face to the ground
and fingers in my cars to keep from
fainting, Gwhen / was boy | would
faint on seeing bloody Then we went
on and into the fight at South Noun
tain or Boonsborough. | never thought
of fainting any more
That was our first fight and the loss
OF SO many of our brave boys. Some
that | call to mind were killed in this
battle; Ephriam Waldrop, Presley Full
Ter, Edwin Fuller, John Crawford, Ed
Smith, Waddy Irby and Colonel Our
comradc j. A. Jones was shot through
the head and lay on the field all night
unconscious. The Yankees took care
Of him, and as you know, he returned
homo ad lived several years after the
war. The next fight was at Fredcricks-
burg, December 13, 1862, in Which we
had no active part. Al Charlottesville,
May p 1868, we dug trenches with our
Eyonets, but the Yankees did not
reach us. In the next battle, at Fish
ers Hill, General Conner who was
then commanding our brigade, had
his leg shot of while on his horse.
Then came the great battle Of Get
tysburg, July I, 2 and 3, 1868. Here
we lost several men: Preston Miller
Pickens Fuller, Dolph Fuller, and
others whose names don't recall. Bob
Hollingsworth, who IS in our COM
pany, was shot throu the thigh. He
says 1t was a great blessing to him,
as the Yankees treated him SO nice
Then we went back to old Virginia
and rested few days. l got fur
Tough for twenty days to come home,
and while at home Longstreet's COM
mand was sent to Georgia and the bat
tie Of Chickamauga was fought Sep
tember 20, 1868, where our captain
Allen Watson, and others were killed.
This battle, somrthing like Gettys-
burg was draw fight
On the next day l returned to the
company. We thcn went to Knoxville,
Tenn, in November, where Marshall
Notes was killed. At Bean Station,
our old comrade Blue Goodman lost
part Of his hand We put up shanties
and spent the balance Of the winter Of
1868. at Morristown, Tenn.
On leaving Morristown Ct do not re-
member the date), we went to Cor
donville, Virginia, for few days, and
then to the Wilderness. There was a
terrible fight going on and twc got
within fifty yards of each other several
times. Finally the enemy gave way
and we thought we would get to rest,
but soon we got orders to move on and
we went on for while, we didn't know
where. but soon we were ordered to
double-quick and then to run to head
the Yankees. We had race to a rail
brcastworks and there we met the
lanks hand to hand for few minutes.
but they soon gave way and we killed
a good many of them as they were
fleeing for their lives. After the bat
tie, we found four OF our men dead.
They had been taken prisoners and we
had killed them in the midst of the re-
treating Yankees. remember that
Alf Milan and Ike Austin, from our
company, were killed. A big rcdJhead-
ed Yankee got the drop on me and I
surrendered, and got over the rails. AS
! was going over Captain Pitts saw my
fix and told Thad Brown, who shot the
me. think this was May s. 1864.
Sid Finley was taken prisoner at
Northanna River May 27, and died at
Point Lookout where we defeated the
Yankees in a battle. We we're at Cold
Harbor several days In line and were
close enough to talk to the enemy.
John Calhoun vas killed there, the
same bullet k ing Tom - and
passing through another's jaw. These
men were cooks and were going back
after giving out the rations. We had
an armistce for two hours and I'VE