forward to save the flag, but in an instant I am on my feet again, and soon get away with my flag amid the cheers of my comrades. The rebels follow up close. We fall behind our breastworks, pursued so close by the enemy that it is with difficulty we make our way through the slashing. When we get out of the way our artillery open upon the rebels with grape, cannister and shrapnell, and make fearful havoc in their ranks, causing them to fall back to a safe distance.

There is nothing to be written about now but slaughter, and night finds us in the same place we started from three days before. During the night we get the order to fall back, and all think we are going to re-cross the Rapidan, but the order is countermanded, and after marching a few miles, turn about and march to the front again. We find that what our new commander, General Grant, lacks in generalship he makes up in pluck, and says he will fight it out on this line if it takes him all summer.

We do not see plished by the last slaughter of men.

that there has been anything accomthree days' fighting, except a fearful It has been variously estimated that

our losses in this gory Battle of the Wilderness amounts to from twenty to forty thousand men in killed and wounded.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

A FLANK MOVEMENT-BATTLE OF TODD S TAVERN -THE BURNING WILDERNESS-FEARFUL SUFFERING OF OUR WOUNDED-INHUMAN WORK OF REBEL GUERILLAS-A CHARGE AT SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE-TWO MAJOR GENERALS, EIGHT THOUSAND PRISONERS, AND FORTY-TWO PIECES OF ARTILLERY CAPTURED-ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE-SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

On the eighth of May we commence to swing around on the celebrated line which we all think we shall have to fight on all sunimer, and leave the gory slaughter-pen of the wilderness behind. It is evident that a flank movement is on foot. But Lee is wide awake, and they meet us in force at Todd's Tavern, where we fight another battle. We see that the woods in the rear, where we left, are all ablaze, and thousands must be burning up. Oh, what suffering there must be among the wounded, and, to make it more horrible for them, the rebel guerrillas prowl around and take everything from them, even to the clothing on their backs. Inhuman fiends! It is a wonder that the wrath of God does not fall on them and smite them to the earth.

The battle of Todd's Tavern was meant for a flank movement on the enemy's lines, but the rebel chief seems to know where we are going to make a move, for his troops are as thick as bees wherever we go. It is easier for him to concentrate, and he can do it quicker on account of not having so much ground to pass over. He is in the circle, and can cut across, while we have to go around. We do not deny, however, that General Lee is an extraordinary General, for there is not a place he meets us, even with our

far superior numbers, but that we are checked. It is all nonsense to say that he fights on the defensive, for they make as many charges as we do. Now what is the reason that we cannot walk right straight through them with our far superior numbers? We fight as good as they. They must understand the country better, or else there is a screw loose somewhere in the machinery of our army.

Nothing is accomplished here, and we move further to the enemy's flank, but no matter how still we keep our movements, we are met with almost equal numbers. On the night of the 11th of May, our corps is put on a forced march to the enemy's extreme right, which rests at this time, at Spottsylvania Court House. The night is pitchy dark, and it is all we can do to see our way one after another. We march all night after fighting for the last six days without intermission. Oh, yes, let those miserable poltroons, who say that a soldier fights for pay, come down and fight just one single battle in this campaign, and they will find out whether money could hire them to fight in another. About 4 o'clock of the morning of the 12th, we arrive, after a march of about twenty miles, at our destination. We get a little rest while the regiments are forming in line. Make no unnecessary noise, is the order, and every move is executed with the utmost stillness. A drizzling rain commences; the clouds are looking black, and we now see that a storm is approaching. Well, we shall have two storms--the storm of the elements, with its thunders and lightnings, and the storm of battle, with its thunders of artillery and roar of musketry. We are in line, and every man is ready to forward at the word of command. Forward men, keep steady, and your lines closed up, are the orders, and twenty thousand men go in solid mass for the enemy's lines in the early morn. The

whole mass commence shouting and cheering as they go on the double quick, and before the rebels in their front line of work know what we are about, the gallant second corps are down on them like an avalanche, capturing eight thousand prisoners, forty-two pieces of artillery and two MajorGenerals General Johnson and the haughty General Stuart, of cavalry fame. The former General was filled with emotion. When our gallant corps commander, General Hancock, offered him his hand he took it and wept like a child, and said that "he was sorry that they met. under the present circumstances, for he did not like to be captured in the way he had been." How much unlike he acted to his brother General. When the noble Hancock offered him his hand, the proud slave-holding aristocrat replied, "Sir, I am General Stewart, one of the F. F. V's, and decline to shake hands with a mudsil of the north," or words to that effect. But we were all proud of our brave and gallant General for his reply to the haughty slavedriver. He answered and said: "And General Stewart, under no other circumstance than the present one, when you are my prisoner, would I offer you my hand."

The rebels are now infuriated, and Lee concentrates all the force he can possibly spare to try to take back that which he lost. They make charge after charge on our now well established lines, but all the good they do is to get slaughtered as fast as they come. The rain is now pouring down in torrents, and we are ankle deep in mud. The fighting along the lines for eight or ten miles is terrific. In this charge we lose one of the best officers in our regiment, Captain Thomas Tait, who was wounded while leading his company on the charge. Our artillery is doing great execution here, for they have a good chance to make up for their inactivity at the wilderness. For four or five days we

!

fight around this place, and the slaughter is nearly as great as at the wilderness. Oh, how sleepy, tired, and dirty we are, after the last three weeks' campaigns and battles, fighting every day, and in the night building breast works or marching. If the slaughter and fatigue lasts all summer on THIS line, as it has lasted since we started from camp at Brandy Station, we think there will not be many of the original Army of the Potomac left after the summer. Up

to

this date our losses are estimated at forty thousand men killed, the same number of men that Lee had when he started on this campaign, but, of course, he is receiving reinforcements every day from the South. What would be the cry against our old commander, Little Mac, if he had lost so many men in such a short time. The cry would be long before this, perhaps, to hang him for incapacity to handle so many men; but the former growlers do not say anything now; only look on in dismay at the butchery of thousands of the best lives in the country, and send more down, without a murmur, to fill their places. Surely, we cannot see much generalship in our campaign so far, and the soldiers are getting sick of such butchery in such a way. Half the time the men are fighting on their own responsibility, and if there is anything gained so far it is by brute force, and not by generalship. But we will fight it out anyway, if it takes every man in the army all summer.

Our regiment, with all of our corps, has suffered fearfully so far. John McNabb, of Company A, or, as he was more familiarly called, Scotty, has given his left eye as his mite for the cause, Lieutenant Leonard, of Company F, is no more, and nothing would afford me greater pleasure than to mention all would space permit.