Left McMinnville
camp in the morning, the colonel telling us, ''Boys, you have longed to meet
the enemy on the battle-field, and you will have a chance to-day, or do without
water, as the enemy holds the spring that we will have to encamp at." The
shout went up from every son of Uncle Sam's family, ,, [sic] A fight and water we
will have." The cannons were already booming, and had been all night, so
at fifteen minutes past two o'clock we became engaged, and in one hour and three-quarters
we lost two hundred and eleven men out of our regiment (the 79th Pa. Vol.
Infantry). We went into the fight with forty-three men in our company (D) and
came out with eighteen, having had twenty-five wounded and killed; two killed
dead and two dying the next day. I myself was unfortunate enough to be shot
through the left leg, about two inches below the knee, the ball glancing off
the bone and passing through and out at the fleshy part or calf of the leg,
injuring the muscle so that I was unfit for fight, and was sent to the rear
after the fifteenth fire. This is my first and last wound received in the
battle of Chaplin Hill or Chaplin Heights, so called, and fought on the 8th day
of October. 1862. in Boyle county, Ky. Making a march of 8 miles.
SOURCE: Adam S.
Johnston, The Soldier Boy's Diary Book, pp. 22-3
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