Moved this morning,
feeling for the enemy, and came up to them at noon, five miles from the Run, in
the Wilderness. It certainly is a wilderness; it is almost impossible for a man
to walk, as the woods are thick with an underbrush growth and all kinds of
shrubbery, old logs, grapevines, and goodness knows what. My corps of
sharpshooters was ordered to the front. We formed in line and advanced to the
enemy. We fought them very hard for three hours, they falling back all the
time. Our sharpshooters' line got mixed up with Gordon's Brigade, and fought
with them. In one charge we got to the most elevated place in the Wilderness.
We looked back for our brigade, but saw it not. Just then a Yankee officer came
up and we took him prisoner. Some of Gordon's men took him to the rear. Six of
our regiment, sharpshooters, myself included, went to the right to join our
regiment, but were picked up by the Yankees and made prisoners. We were run
back in their line on the double quick. When we got to their rear we found
about 300 of our men were already prisoners. The Yankees lost very heavily in
this fight, more than we did. Although we lost heavy enough, but, my Heavens!
what an army they have got. It seems to me that there is ten of them to one of
us. It looks strange that we could deliver such fearful blows when, in fact, if
numbers counted, they should have killed us two years ago. In going to their
rear we passed through four lines of battle and reinforcements still coming up,
while we are satisfied with, or at least have no more than one line of battle.
SOURCE: Louis
Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 60-1
No comments:
Post a Comment