Nine miles from
Atlanta, two and one-half miles southwest of railroad crossing,
July 9, 1864.
On the evening of the 7th, just dark, a Rebel battery in a
fort which our guns had been bursting shells over all day, suddenly opened with
eight 20-pound Parrotts, and for one-half an hour did some of the most rapid
work I ever heard. They first paid their attention to our batteries, then
demolished some half-dozen wagons and 20 mules for the 4th Division of the 17th
Army Corps half a mile to our right, and then began scattering their
compliments along our line, wherever I suppose they had detected our presence
by smoke or noise. They kept getting closer and closer to us, and finally, a
shell burst in front of our regiment. The next one went 50 yards past us and dropped
into the 40th Illinois. Neither of them did any damage, and no more came so
close. An hour afterward we fell in, and moving a mile to the left and one-half
a mile to the front, occupied a ridge which we fortified by daylight, so they
might shell and be hanged.
The Rebel skirmishers heard us moving as we came over, and
threw more than a thousand bullets at us, but it was so pitchy dark that
fortunately they did us no damage. From our colors we can see the fort that
fired so the night of the 7th. They are about three-fourths of a mile distant.
There have not been any bullets or shells passed over us since we got our works
up, though the skirmish line at the foot of the hill, has a lively time. We
have it very easy. I was on the 8th in charge of a line of skirmishers on the
left of our brigade. The Rebels were seemingly quite peaceable, so much so,
that I thought I'd walk over to some blackberry bushes 50 yards in front of our
right.
I got about half way out when they sent about a dozen
bullets at me. I retired in good order, considering. In the p. m. of the 7th,
the skirmishers in front of a brigade of the 20th Corps, and the Rebel line,
left their guns, and went out and were together nearly all the afternoon; 13 of
the Rebels agreed to come into our line after dark. At the time appointed,
heavy firing commenced on the Rebel side, and our boys, fearing foul play,
poured in a few volleys. Through the heaviest of the fire two of the Rebels
came running in. They said that the 13 started, and that the Rebels opened on
them. The rest were probably killed. One of my men has just returned from visiting
his brother in the 20th Corps. It is reported there that the 23d Corps crossed
the river this p. m. without losing a man. The heavy firing this evening was
our folks knocking down some block houses at the railroad bridge. The 4th Corps
to-night lays right along the river bank.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 276-7
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