March the brigade at one and half through covered way to
front line. Mine sprung at 4.40. We rushed across the open field. I got up to
the enemy's works about as soon as any one. Got into the crater. Took the first
and second lines of the enemy. Held them till after one, when we were driven
back by repeated charges. I fought them for an hour after they held the whole line,
excepting the crater where we were, their flag within seven feet of ours across
the work. They threw bayonets and bottles on us, and we returned, for we got
out of ammunition. At last, to save further slaughter, there being no hope of
our being rescued, we gave it up. That crater during that day I shall never
forget. A shell knocked down a boulder of clay on to my wood leg and crushed it
to pieces, killing the man next me. I surrendered to General Mahone.
SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William
Francis Bartlett, p. 118-9
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