Thursday, 12. — A most disagreeable rainy day. Mud and roads horrible. Marched from Blacksburg to Salt Pond Mountain. My brigade had charge of the train. I acted as wagonmaster; a long train to keep up. Rode all day in mud and rain back and forth. Met “Mudwall” Jackson and fifteen hundred [men]—a poor force that lit out rapidly from near Newport. Got to camp — no tents—[at] midnight. Mud; slept on wet ground without blankets. A horrible day, one of the worst of all my experience. Fifteen miles.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Thursday, 12th—It is very foggy this morning and our camp is low and unhealthy. We had inspection this morning and then company drill for an hour. John White and I then took a walk, and going outside of the pickets, we climbed some very high bluffs and found some of the nicest springs that I have ever seen. The country is very rough and heavily timbered with chestnut and scrub oak. There are a few little clearings with log huts. Our teams went back to Clifton this morning for rations.
Thursday, 12th.—Johnston’s division and some cavalry going up railroad towards Cleveland. Drove Yanks back past Varnell’s, and then returned to Dalton.
Thursday, May 12. — General Crittenden arrived last evening and took command of our division this morning. Our whole corps advanced at 4 A.M., Potter’s division leading and Crittenden’s following. The 1st Brigade of Crittenden’s division had the advance of the division. We moved up the Spottsylvania road, swinging our left around so that it was nearly at right angles to the road. We advanced about a mile from the road before we were engaged with the enemy. The movement turned out to be one to connect with Meade’s army. I thought that the enemy had retreated, and that we were following him, and had no idea that we were going right into a fight. Potter was soon briskly engaged, and as they were trying to flank him, I threw forward my right, making almost a right angle with his line. Potter carried the first line of the enemy’s pits. I had the 59th and 57th detached, the former to report to Potter and the later to Lesure, leaving me with the 56th. Soon the Regulars joined me, and were posted on the left of three brass guns, with the 56th on the right. Skirmishers and sharpshooters soon began to annoy, and the battery cleared out. About 3 P.M. an order was received from General Grant, ordering the corps to charge the enemy’s works. M y brigade was out of ammunition, but the 56th advanced, misunderstanding the order. Artillery and infantry soon opened on them, and for some time shells were plenty. Our men were repulsed. Major Jarves was wounded in the heel. Likewise Lieutenant Galucia. Captain Putnam ordered them to fall back slowly. Two thirds of them obeyed, but the remainder ran. I rallied about 80 of them and put them in the front again. We had brisk skirmishing all day. In the night, as we had not formed a junction with Hancock, it was proposed to fall back, but it was effected without falling back. On the right we were very successful, Hancock capturing several thousand men. Rained in the afternoon and night. Had to lie down on a bank without anything but a rubber coat. Felt cold and miserable all night.
May 12—This morning at two o’clock the cannon commenced booming in front, which was the ushering in of the preliminary performance and introduction of the bloody battle of Spottsylvania Court House. As the deep foreboding roar of artillery came rolling through the midnight darkness, it bore the thrilling message that another horrible slaughter was tapping at the door of the near future and that its bloody footsteps were already sounding on the threshold of the tragical arena. At daybreak we were ordered to the front to take part in the great death play that was then already fiercely inaugurated and howling with a hideous roar. Before we arrived on the field the battle had commenced in earnest, the musketry raging furiously, while roll after roll and volley after volley surged and raved along the lines with a deafening roar and fearful crash.
The artillery fire was not near so heavy as it was at Gettysburg, yet at some places along the lines the cannons boomed rapidly and fiercely and the screaming shell filled the trembling air with whizzing fragments and pinging slugs. The musketry was undoubtedly the heaviest that I have ever heard on any field, and it is utterly incomprehensible how men can face the storm of lead, and stand under such fire and live, as raged along the lines to-day. When we arrived on the field our battery was ordered to the extreme left of our battle line; we immediately proceeded to our assigned position and put our guns in battery in a good commanding position on a gently sloping hill, which also afforded us a fine view of the enemy’s line on their extreme right and the northwest portion of the battle-field. We were not engaged until this afternoon, when we opened fire on a Yankee battery of eight guns that was in position, in a good field fortification on the right of their battle line, and a little lower in elevation than our position. The Yankee gunners that fired on our battery certainly put in some fine work in the shooting business; nearly every shell they fired at us exploded either just in front of our guns or right over our heads, and sometimes their exploding shrapnel sowed the leaden slugs around us apparently as thick as hail.
After we were firing about an hour a shell from the Yankee battery exploded right in front of my gun, and I saw a good-sized fragment that was whizzing fearfully and searching for something to kill. It came right at me as though I was its sure game, but I quickly jumped across the trail of my gun in order to clear the path for the little whirling death machine that was after me and was ready to call me its own dear Rebel. It passed me with a shrill snappish ping, and with a thud it ripped up the ground just in rear of where I had been standing; if I had not seen it coming and quickly jumped out of its path it would have struck me square in front just below the breast, which would have undoubtedly labeled me for transportation to the silent city. But a miss is as good as a mile, and when the fragment that was courting familiarity had passed over me I jumped back to my place at the gun, and the very next shell I fired struck and exploded a limber chest in the Yankee battery; immediately after I fired I saw a dense telltale column of smoke shoot up in the air from the enemy’s position, and then I knew that my shell had done some ugly work among the ammunition boxes of our brethren in blue.
We had no way of ascertaining the extent of damage that the explosion scattered around, but it must have been considerable, as it silenced the Yankee battery for the remainder of the evening; if they were satisfied to wind up our little act in the great tragedy by ringing down the curtain for a little explosion I am sure that I had enough, and was willing and glad to quit.
After the firing ceased we held our position until nearly dusk, and when we left the field the Yankee battery was still in the breastwork from which it fired at us this afternoon — until we planted a young volcano among their ammunition chests.
During the battle I saw a Yankee shell explode in front of one of our batteries. The butt end of the shell struck one of the drivers in the breast and went through him; when it struck him he jumped up about a foot from the saddle, then fell to the ground stretched out in full length, and never struggled.
The battle-field of Spottsylvania Court House is undulating and diversified by hills and hollows, woods and fields, brushwood and thicket. It rained nearly all day, and sometimes when the rain poured down the hardest and almost in torrents the musketry was heaviest. It looked as if Heaven were trying to wash up the blood as fast as the civilized barbarians were spilling it.
The engagement was general along the whole line and the battle raged furiously all day. I have no idea what General Grant expected to accomplish to-day, but if he thought that he could break through General Lee’s line and slip to the citadel of Dixie by pounding on the front door with a sledge hammer he is a much disappointed and mistaken general this evening, for General Lee’s line is as impregnable this evening as it was this morning, if not more so.
We had but one man wounded in our battery in the fight to-day. This evening at dusk we withdrew from the field and moved to the rear about two miles, and bivouacked by the roadside.
Huntsville, Thursday, May 12. All army followers, sutlers, correspondents, etc. were ordered out this morning to work on fortifications by Colonel Alexander, a tough pull for them, but justifiable and highly acceptable to the soldiers. They left their homes to avoid conscription and rob the soldier of his hard-earned money. Let them dig alongside the but slightly darker complected baker and hotel waiter. I was on guard, which this time, is a day of rest, very acceptable. I was quite tired, almost sick. An exciting report arrived that Butler was in Richmond, received 11 A. M. But little credence placed on it, though.
May 12th. A severe rain storm set in last night. Detailed for picket. Wet through. Between the rain and the mud we are in misery. Duty must be attended to. We are in the field, the enemy’s country. What sleep we can get in the mud and rain doesn’t amount to very much, as we must lie on the ground. We are enduring hardships for our country. Very little growling or complaining from the boys. Some of the boys will call out, good natured, “Boys, it is three years or during,” meaning during the war. Most generally creates a laugh, in spite of our condition. Some changes in our company. Color-sergeant Geo. W. Brady made first sergeant, Corporal Sylvanus Downer made color sergeant.
Thursday, May 12.—The cannon is now roaring in our ears. It cannot be more than three miles off. The Lord reigneth; in that is our trust. There was a severe cavalry fight yesterday morning, in which our brilliant cavalry leader, General J. E. B. Stuart, was severely wounded. He was brought to the city last night. One of his aids, our relative, Lieutenant T. S. Garnett, has told us with what difficulty they got him here; in an ambulance, going out of the way, hither and thither, to avoid the enemy; of course, every jolt inflicting intense agony. He is now at the house of his brother-in-law, Dr. Brewer, surrounded by the most efficient surgeons and devoted friends. The prayers of the community are with him.
My time, when out of the office, is much absorbed by the hospital. Many wounded are brought in from both sides of the river. This morning, as I entered St. James’s Church, I saw the smoke from the cannon distinctly. I stood for a moment on the steps and listened to the continued roaring, and felt that the contest was fearfully near to us. The prayers, hymns, psalms, and address were most comforting. God be praised for his goodness, that we are still surrounded by Christian people, and have the faith and trust of Christians. The town is as calm as if it were not the great object of desire to hundreds of thousands of implacable enemies, who desire nothing so much as its destruction.
General Lee’s telegram last night gave us an account of another repulse given General Grant, with great slaughter. “We suffered little in comparison;” such was his telegram, signed “R. E. Lee.” His signature is always cheering to oar people. For some time we had not seen it, in consequence of cut telegraphic wires. Both armies are now fortifying. The Yankees have such indomitable perseverance, that they will never give up.
12th. Orders early to move. Sent 10 teams yesterday after forage. Sent two today for rations: Went with Pike and Ed. Livingston to the front, raining quite hard. Last night Gen. Hancock moved from right to left and this morning captured a division of Rebs under Johnson—Bushrod, I hear. Several charges made to little purpose. Ed and I visited our breastworks and one battery of 15 guns, Napoleon 12 and Rifled guns. Artillery firing very heavy all along the lines. Train pulled out about 2 o’clock and moved to within 3 miles of Fredericksburg. Cut off several miles of bad roads. Camped a little after dark. Rainy night. Firing still continues.
May 12—Raining hard all day, and fighting all last night. About 2 o’clock this afternoon about 2,000 prisoners came in, with them Major-General Johnson and Brigadier-General Stewart. We have moved four miles nearer to Fredericksburg. I suppose they think we are too close to our own lines, and they are afraid we will be recaptured, as it was a few days ago. We heard our boys’, or, as the Yankees call it, the Rebel yell. We prisoners also gave the Rebel yell. A few minutes after that they brought cannon to bear on us, and we were told to stop, or they would open on us. We stopped.
