Clear Creek, Miss., September 29, p. m.
As we were studying
tactics together, preparatory to a battalion drill, our brigade commander at precisely
2:15 p. m., came into the colonel's tent where we were, asked the colonel if he
was ready to move immediately. The colonel replied that he was, and he then
told us to be ready to start at 3 o'clock, and that the regiment first on the
brigade parade ground, ready to move, should have the advance. In just twenty
minutes we had struck tents, packed knaps, loaded wagons and formed line,
everybody in the best of spirits at the thought of leaving and joining
Rosecrans. We beat the other regiments and therefore got the advance, which was
quite an object as the dust lays, when it don't fly, several inches deep. I let
my little chameleon (I wish I could have sent him home) back into the tree
before we started. Cogswell's battery attempted to pass us on the march, but
our two advanced companies fixed bayonets, and by a few motions stopped the
proceeding. Cogswell got very wrathy, but when Colonel Wright proposed to shoot
him if he didn't cool down, he became calmer and moved to the rear “promptly.”
The dust has been awful. Never saw it worse, except in a march from Bolivar to
Lagrange, Tenn., a year ago. We bivouacked at 9 o'clock p. m., nine miles from
camp. I stood the march splendidly.
SOURCE: Charles
Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 192-3
No comments:
Post a Comment