May 15. Sunday. — Marched four miles from south of Salt Sulphur Springs to north of Union — a beautiful grazing country. Salt Sulphur a pleasure resort in good condition; Union a fine village. A bushwhacker killed by [the] Thirty-sixth. Slept last night on the ground; rained all night; roads still worse. Slept well. Greenbrier River reported unfordable. Starvation only to be kept off by energetic and systematic foraging. General Crook anxious; works himself like a Turk.
Four men of Company F, who went out foraging at Blacksburg, reported to have been seen dead on the road. They went out foolishly unarmed. Washed, shirted, and cleaned up.
Memoranda.
1. A better pioneer party.
2. A provost guard to look after stragglers, prevent plundering, etc.
3. A better arrangement for sick and wounded.
4. A guard to feed and keep prisoners.
We have now been fifteen days away from all news except of our own successful movements.
We have here two hundred and fifty Rebel prisoners of [the] Thirty-sixth, Forty-fifth, Sixtieth Virginia, etc. They are well-behaved, civil fellows; have had very little to eat for some days. We are trying to feed them. A good Secesh mother is now feeding some of them.
Colonel Lyon’s Letters.
Stevenson, Ala., Sun., May 15, 1864.—I have had two ragged sheets made into one, and now have a pair of good sheets. I bathed last night and had Jerry wash and dry my single towel before I got up this morning. Jerry does all my room work. The doctor fixed me up some tansy bitters and I worry down a little of the bitter stuff about twice a day.
I spent yesterday and Friday inspecting the railroad defenses in my beat. I stayed Friday night at Anderson, with Captain Noyes. The companies on the railroad are well suited, and are willing to stay there. The whole regiment seems contented.
How glorious the news that comes from General Grant! The heavy fighting of this war, I believe, is nearly over, although the army must be retained some time yet.
General Rousseau has just sent me 125 colored soldiers to work on the fortifications. This relieves the 13th very much.
Everything is perfectly quiet in our vicinity, no force of rebels anywhere near us, but there are guerilla scares nearly every day.
I hope before another year I will be home for good. When I get there, don’t expect me to leave the dooryard, unless I am obliged to, for about three months.
Sunday, 15th—We had regimental inspection this morning at 10 o’clock. Two regiments came out from Clifton as reinforcements for ours. We turned over all our tents, except one for every five men and this evening received orders to be ready to march in the morning at 5 o’clock for Waynesburg, Tennessee. Jason Sparks arrived this evening from Iowa to join our company. He is well and happy.
[Diary] Sunday, May 15.
Went down to church and made arrangements to go home. Wrote to the girls to say that I shall leave here May 30. Harriet Murray will not leave Frogmore. We have invited her up here, now Mrs. M. has gone, but she declines coming. She has got Lizzie Hunn to stay with her at Frogmore. I saw Mr. Sumner, who has been with an excursion party to Florida. We were invited, but did not go. Miss Kellogg went. On the way the Harriet Weed, or the Boston steamer, was following them as nearly as possible when a torpedo exploded and she went to the bottom before the eyes of the other boat. Mr. S. says that Miss Kellogg is not well since the fright. Ellen feels that she must go down to stay with Harriet after I go, since H. will not come up.
Uncle Robert came to the school to borrow a dollar “for buy tobacco.” He says he has cotton to pay me that and the other three he owes me; that he can get no money at all, as he will not work for Mr. Fairfield. In order to force the people to work for him, Mr. Fairfield threatens to turn them out of their houses, or to make them pay four dollars a month for their rent. They appealed to Dr. Brisbane,[1] who finally persuaded them to consent to plant a task each of cotton for Mr. F. This may pay his expenses. If the people had not been induced to do this by a third party, Mr. F. would have been ruined.
[1] One of the Tax Commissioners.
Sunday, 15th.—At 7 A. M., ordered to the new line we left last night, and were fired on very heavy as we were moving in. By 10 A. M., had pretty fair works, by digging with bayonets and throwing out dirt with our hands. Heavy skirmishing all along the lines. Lieutenant Hill, Company C, killed. Shelling and sharp-shooting us heavy. . 3 P. M., assault on the right of our brigade and Brown’s brigade. 3:30 P. M., heavy fighting for some distance along our right front; seems to be a general charge; 5 p. m., Yanks repulsed. Started to charge 39th, but one volley sent them back to their works. Charged Brown’s brigade three times. Corput’s battery of four Napoleon brass guns were ordered forward to support the skirmish line; the Federals drove in the skirmish line and killed so many of the horses that the artillery was abandoned for a few moments, and the Federals took charge of the guns, but before they had time to remove them, Brown’s and Reynolds’ Brigades charged so impetuously on them, that they, in turn, abandoned the guns in double quick time. After a short interval, the Federals advanced again. Brown’s and Reynolds’ Brigades left the artillery and fell back to their main line, and as the Yankees came up to the guns, again poured such a heavy fire into them that they were compelled to retire and leave the guns. Neither party could go to the guns, and no further attempt was made that day to remove them. Loss in 39th heavy to-day. Captain Brady, Company K, killed; also Sergeant Hood of our company. Lieutenant Ruth and two or three others of Company C, mortally wounded. Have been shelled very heavily all day.
Sunday, May 15. — Little more sharpshooting than usual. A man from E Company was killed by a sharpshooter while standing by a line in rear of headquarters. George Barnard and Davis were over here to see me this morning. Heard that we formed the extreme right, the Second Corps having moved to our left. Rained a good part of the day. Threw up traverses.
May 15 — All quiet along the lines to-day except some little skirmish firing to our right.
The Yankees have abandoned their works on the right of their line in our immediate front, and it seems that General Grant is once more changing base by moving to the left. He has entirely abandoned his Richmond trip through Spottsylvania Court House. For ten days General Grant, with an overwhelming force, has been thundering, thumping, and hammering with unabated vehemency at the little barrier of Southern steel that is day after day unwound and unfolded, and opportunely interposed and nicely maneuvered by the master hand of General Lee, between this modern Ulysses with his well equipped host and the heart of Dixie. But the living wall still stands and is as dangerous as ever, and General Grant is still searching and hunting for a weak place whereby he may butt his way through and onward to Richmond.
To-day I wandered over a portion of the battle-field in front of our works where the bloody and sanguinary conflict raged in its wildest frenzy three days ago. Hundreds of the enemy’s dead are still unburied, lying on the field where they fell, and as evidence of the enemy’s desperate and furious assaults to break through General Lee’s line some of their dead are lying within six feet of our breastworks.
At several places I saw where the musketry fire had been so heavy and terrific that all the bushes and underbrush along and in rear of the lines were cut down clean, and there is not a twig on the trees that does not show the nipping bite of a bullet. The trees that stood in the leaden shower are all splintered and shivered, and look as if all the woodpeckers in creation had been at work on them for a month. Some men — and not a few — when they get under a heavy infantry fire become wild with excitement, while others are frenzied with fear, and while in that state they shoot any and everywhere; some of them fire at the moon. I saw large pine trees that stand just in rear of where our infantry line stood, and the trees are full of Yankee bullets from bottom to top; a great many of the bullet marks are fifty feet from the ground. At one place a thick growth of pines covered the ground in rear of General Lee’s breastworks, and in front is a sod field, dipping with a gradual slope toward our works; the pine trees along the line and for a hundred and fifty yards or more were all cut down by a terrible artillery fire from the enemy’s batteries. The trees were from four to eight inches in diameter and were cut off about twelve feet from the ground. In front of that place the enemy made several desperate charges across the open field trying to break our line, but were repulsed every time with fearful slaughter, and to-day the field is still covered with the dead in blue sleeping their last sleep. The whole country around here is covered with breastworks and field fortifications. Damp, rainy day.
Huntsville, Sunday, May 15. Quiet, tranquil Sabbath day. For once I was not on guard Sunday, so I attended Sabbath school at; 9 A. M. A very interesting class, with the soldiers taught by an intelligent Northern man connected with the quartermaster’s department. Waited till sermon, 10:30 A. M. Listened to a miserable, inconsistent discourse from an itinerant Methodist preacher, a violent rebel apparently at that. In the evening took a stroll through the town to admire the beautiful blooming grounds and yards. Visited the Calhoun yard, where the pest house is now kept. Saw specimens of that vegetable curiosity called the “century plant”, about four feet high, with large fluffy leaves like petals, with little sign of life.
May 15th. Rain. Rain. On picket, wondering why we do not get relieved. It is past time for the relief to show up. Lieutenant Kerr sends a detail to camp to learn the cause. Returned in a short time, reported the regiment had left for parts unknown. The Lieutenant called in the pickets to the reserve headquarters in the woods. Formed company and were ready for action as we marched out of the woods to the pike, expecting to meet the enemy’s scouts. Instead we met our own cavalry scouts who reported our regiment left in the night, going up the valley towards New Market. We started on after them, making a forced march, wet, tired, hungry, well used up. Some misunderstanding of orders was the cause of our being left on picket. It was a wonder to us that we did not meet the rebel cavalry and have a hot time, as they had been in this vicinity, scouting all around us. We were determined to put up a hot fight, had we met the enemy. Lieutenant Kerr kept urging us on, making a forced march up the pike. Duty having been so severe, and the lack of rations for the past few days, we were near used up. The last two miles of the march we ran, and joined the regiment as they were going into action, having made a march of sixteen miles with hardly a rest, and very little to eat.
Colonel Moore, Commander of our brigade, pushed our regiment and an Ohio regiment, with a section of a battery, two field guns, about six miles in advance of the main army, bringing on a general engagement. We could not hold the enemy in check as they advanced with a long line of battle. Our battery fell back. The Ohio regiment followed, when our commander, Lieutenant-colonel Peale, gave the command to our regiment, “By the right of companies, to the rear in column,” so we continued to march until we met the 34th Massachusetts Regiment, coming running up with a battery, taking a good position. The enemy was held in check, but for a short time. Sigel managed to get his main force in line, batteries posted, so the enemy was held in check. Our brigade suffered heavy loss. Some of the field pieces had to be abandoned as the horses had been killed and we were in too much mud to draw them away, or back to the main line. It looked to us like a case of mismanagement.
Sunday, 15th. Trains passing to the rear all night and today. Started teams for forage. Rainy night and cloudy today. Several from the Regt. down, Col. P.—Regt. under Maj. Nettleton had a fight with a brigade of rebs. Lost 15 or 20 horses, and four men were wounded. Rebs fell back as soon as the “dark cloud” made its appearance. Big reports came to the rear. Guess Button showed little pluck.
