Year: 1864




No general engagement yesterday
and to-day. No line Of battle assaults
by either army, nevertheless there has
been inGessant firing day and night,
now ct our point, now at another, anon
ripping from one end of the line to
the other, and the casualties have not
been inconsiderable. 1t could not
have been otherwise with the lines so
close to each other. / have never be
fore seen such extensive works con-
structed with such magical rapidity, or
that pressed so hard to the enemy 5.
Nor are they simply strait ditch and
embankment They are intricate, zig
Jagged lines, within line, line protecting
flank of line, lines built to enflade an
opposing line, line within which lies a
battery which must keep silent Some
small battery that ranges into the
trenches of other lines, may be, half a
mile away-a maize and labyrinth of
works, and works without works, each
laid out with some definite design
either of defense or offense. Let the
/ necessity of any one Of these remain
unperceived, or neglected, and battle
might be lost and an army imperiled.


Half an hour ago a staff officer rode
into 9th Corps headquarter from Gen.
Neill, comm anding I'd Division, and
reported that the enemy had opened
a battery from a position on the flank
of one of his advanced lines, which
dropped shells directly and surely into
a trench where lay 1000 men. Gen.
Wright replied: 1" Ny compliments to
Gen. Neill, and say to him that when /
inspected the line two hours ago !
suspected the enemy would plant a
battery there, and found a position on
the front of the 18th Corps where guns
could be placed that would silence it.
| stated the case to Gen. Smith and he
instantly ordered battery there and
| think by this time it must be about
ready to open. Gen. Neill has only to
keep his men steady few minutes and
he wont be troubled by any more shells
from that quarter" The staff officer
rode rapidly off, and the clatter of his
horses hoofs had not died away when
four shots some distance to the right
doomed in quick succession, and Gen.
1 Wright halted in his measured tread in
front of his quarters, listened for
another and remarked, "There, that's
from the right quarter, that'll shut up
the guns that are playing the deuce
with NeilL" And so it did


The incident will serve to- show the
alert vigilance, the Typographical eye
and the prompt decision which enables
us to battle such adroit generalship as
that which manages the rebels who
fairly swarm right over yonder, not half
a mile from where l write, and who
cause shell to drop even in this cloth
city, yclept Headquarters of the Army
Of the Potomac


Three miles to the right, where it
has become necessary that Warren
should stretch his decimated corps over
a long line and hold it at all hazards,
else the right flank might be turned,
over 40 solid shot and unexploded
shells were picked up within radius
Of 100 yards, extended from a certain
oak tree. Beneath that tree Warren
had his headquarters during two field
days, because that particular locality
commanded the best view Of the battle
line, and was easiest Of access to diVi-
sion and brigade commanders.


When | saw them they were piled up
in the manner represented by diagrams
in the Textbook in Algebra of my
school days, when certain theorems for
calculating the number in any given
heap. without the labor of counting
were given-knoWn in schools as the
"cannOn-ball theorems Two men were
making an excavation close by-a little
too short for a grave, a little too square
cut for a rifle-pit II proved, on inquiry,
that arrangements were making for de
cent and safe interment Of the limo
cent-loooking but ugly-meant and ugly
meaning things They were taken up
tenderly and handled with care, not be
cause-they were fashioned so slenderly
though some were eight inches in length
by two and half in diameter; nor be-
cause they were young and fair, for
nothing was known as to their age, and
they were not fair, but because they
were percussion shells, and might resent
harsh treatment Altogether it was a
Jolly funeral. Gen Warren looked
down into the grave and smiled, az an
unrelenting man might smile upon the
tomb Of a mortal foe. Your humble
servant assisted as pall-bearer Several
drums were heard, and several funeral
notes-bugle notes, hating a battery
that was going into position hard by.
Several soldiers discharged their rebel
shots toward the grave where the var
mints" were buried We buried them
brightly at hight Of noon, the sod with
a shovel turning, and then sat down to
q merry dinner We thought, as We
narrowed tSeir lowly beds and scooped
out the dirty hole, that the foe and the
stranger would tread Ger their heads
and perhaps get blown sky-high.


Hard tack, roast beef, sweet potatoes /
1.-TWO hundred bushels we're found buried /
in a garden, where a family pretending /