At 3 a. m. another tremendous storm of shot and shell. But
all except the guard lay sleeping behind the bluff, so that the torrent of lead
and iron passed harmlessly over our heads.
At noon another truce was agreed upon until 7 p. m., to bury
the dead. Our forces occupied the time in strengthening their works along the
bluff, so that when hostilities began again we had very nice breastworks and
could stand up and fire, whereas before, in many places, the men had to lie
down to fire in order to avoid exposure. At 7 p. m. a rebel gun on the left (an
8 inch Parrot, called the Lady Davis) proclaimed the truce at an end. Now the
conflict began with redoubled fury.
A laughable occurrence happened about this time. A shell
burst in close proximity to our line, throwing stones and dirt all over us, at
the same time knocking down little Pat Murphy. He jumped up, exclaiming, “Be
jobbers, an ’twas the strongest wind I ever filt.”
Firing ceased at 8 p. m.
SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from
a Soldier's Diary, p. 66-7
No comments:
Post a Comment