June 15, 1864.
This has been a star
day, and a better feeling lot of men that compose our brigade will be hard to
find, for to-night any way. The morning was occupied in cleaning guns, etc. At
11 o'clock the assembly was sounded, and we moved one and one-half miles, which
brought us on the left of the whole army. By 1 p. m. we had our line formed
running from right to left, 103d Illinois, 6th Iowa, 46th Ohio, 40th Illinois,
with the 97th Indiana deployed as skirmishers. We were in about the center of
an open lot of plantations, facing a densely-wooded hill of maybe 300 acres. It
was a plumb one-third of a mile to it and already the enemy's sharpshooters
were reaching our men from it.
One of Company K’s men
was shot here, and one of H’s. At precisely 1 p. m. we started, the men having
been notified that they would have to get to that woods as quickly as possible.
The Rebels opened pretty lively. Right in front of where I am now writing is a
house. On the porch I see 11 children, not over nine years old. All belong to
one woman. Haven't seen her, but from what I have seen in this country,
wouldn't dispute the man who would tell me she was only 20 years old. This is a
great stock country. As we started, the boys raised a cheer that was a cheer,
and we went down on them regular storm fashion. A hundred yards before we got
to the hill we ran into a strong line of rifle pits swarming with Johnnies.
They caved and commenced begging. The pit I came to had about 20 in it. They
were scared until some of them were blue, and if you ever heard begging for
life it was then. Somebody yelled out “Let's take the hill,” and we left the
prisoners and broke. At the foot of the hill we came to a muddy rapid stream,
from 10 to 15 feet wide and no crossing, so we plunged in. I got wet to my
middle, and many did to their breasts.
The banks were steep
and slippery and muddy. Though we all expected a serious fight on the hill, up
we went every man for himself, and through to an open field, over which some
200 straggling sandy looking Johnnies were trying to get away, which most of
them accomplished, as we were too tired to continue the pursuit fast enough to
overtake them. However, the boys shot a lot of them. Well, they call it a
gallant thing. We took 542 prisoners, and killed and wounded I suppose 100.
The whole loss in
our brigade is not 10 killed and 50 wounded. I only had one man wounded in my
company, Corp. E. D. Slater. There were three killed and nine wounded in the
regiment.
There were three
regiments of Rebels—the 31st, 40th and 54th Alabama. They ought to have killed
and wounded at least 500 of us, but we scared them out of it. They shot too
high all the time. Osterhaus also had a hard fight to-day, was successful in
taking a line of rifle pits. Thomas drove them a mile.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 261-2
