June 7, 1864
After extraordinary delays an armistice was concluded
between six and eight P.M. this evening. It was very acceptable for burying the
dead but the wounded were mostly dead too, by this time, having been there
since the 3d. I fancy there were not many, for our men make extraordinary
exertions in the night to get in their comrades, and those who were not thus reached
usually had their sufferings shortened by some stray ball, among the showers
that continually passed between the works. We here found the body of Colonel
McMahon, brother of Sedgwick's Adjutant-General. He was wounded and sat down by
a tree, where he was soon hit by two or three other bullets. . . . Some extraordinary scenes occurred
during the armistice. Round one grave, where ten men were laid, there was a
great crowd of both sides. The Rebels were anxious to know who would be next
President. “Wall,” said one of our men, “I am in favor of Old Abe.” “He's a
damned Abolitionist!” promptly exclaimed a grey-back. Upon which our man hit
his adversary between the eyes, and a general fisticuff ensued, only stopped by
the officers rushing in. Our entrenchments were most extraordinary in their
extent, with heavy traverses, where exposed to enfilade, and all done by the
men, as it were, spontaneously. An officer told a man it was not worth while to
go on with a little private bomb-proof he was constructing, as he would only be
there two or three days. “I don't care,” replied he, “if we only stay two or
three hours; I ain't going to have my head knocked off by one of them
shells!" . . .
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 154
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