August 18, 1864
Last night I had
got well into the first sound sleep, when images of war began to intrude on my
dreams, and these, taking on a more corporeal form, gradually waked me enough
to prove to my mind that there was a big racket going on. The noise of a few
shells and many muskets I don't mind, as I am used to it, but, when it comes to
firing heavy mortar shells in salvos, one is authorized to sit up in bed, even
if it is one in the morning. Once awake, I recognized the fact that the largest
kind of a cannonade was going on. The still, damp air was filled with the
detonations of all sorts of big guns and projectiles. It was quite as extensive
as the firing on the morning of the mine and sounded very much louder, in the
night. Our side replied rather moderately, but the enemy kept up one roar of
batteries for some two hours, and the air was full of the humming and bursting
of the shells. At the end of that time they stopped, rather suddenly. We
expended some 1500 rounds of ammunition and they must have fired much more, and
all to kill and wound thirty men. . . .
The great joke of the matter was, that General Meade (who is a sound sleeper,
and was a little deaf from a cold in the head) remained calmly in the arms of
Morpheus, till a telegraph from Grant at City Paint, came in,
asking what all that firing was about! It so happened that the General woke
just at a lull in the cannonade; so he didn't understand the despatch, but
called the officer of the night to know if he had heard any more firing than
usual! You should have seen the deshabille parade of officers in the camp: such
a flitting of figures in a variety of not much clothing! General Humphreys
said: “Yes, perhaps it would be well to have the horses saddled; for,” he added
with a hopeful smile, “we may have a scrimmage, you know.” But he was
disappointed, and we all went to bed again.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 216-7
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