Six miles south of
Jonesboro,
September 2, 1864.
At daylight our skirmish line moved forward and found the
Rebels gone. When our boys reached the railroad a train of cars was just
loading some wounded; the boys made for it, but it outran them. They left a
number of their wounded, and when the 14th broke them on the 1st, we captured
several hospitals, in one of which were several officers. I saw in a hole by a
hospital two legs and three arms. One can't help pitying these Rebel soldiers.
They have been whipped here until they have lost all spirit. They don't fight
with any spirit when they are attacked and it's more like a butchery than a
battle. Our brigade in advance we started after them. The 100th Indiana and 6th
Iowa were deployed as skirmishers, and met the Rebel line almost as soon as
they started forward. They drove them finely for four miles, when our
skirmishers reported that they had run the Rebel army into fortifications.
The country here is quite open, the fields being from half
to a mile or more wide, bordered by a narrow strip of wood. The 46th Ohio and
our regiment were now deployed to relieve the skirmishers, and take a close
look at the enemy's position. They were shooting at us from some rail fences
within range, and a mile away, over the fields, we could see them digging;
seemed to be constructing a line of pits. We pushed forward under a heavy
skirmish fire, and took from a S. C. Brigade the line of pits we saw them
making, and went on a little way until we drew a fire from their main works,
when we retired to the pits we had taken and prepared to hold them. Found tools
in them. This was 3 p. m. About dark the Rebels made three little sorties, but
only in light force. We easily repulsed them. Captain Post was wounded in the
right breast. Loss in the regiment is seven wounded, raising the loss in the regiment
to 178. The 103d and 46th Ohio captured 19 prisoners and killed and wounded at
least 25.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 297-8
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