Andersonville, Volume 1

by the frosty rigor, and sentinels had been frozen to death in our neighborhood. The deep snow on which we made our beds, the icy c

knoll at the end of the village toward us, and at a point where two roads separated,-one of which led to us,-stood a three-inch Rodman rifle, belonging to the Twent

untain-tops, as if numb as the animal and vegetable life whic

r-r-r-a-ta-ara of the Regulation reveille, and the company buglers,

and began wishing for the thousandth time that the efforts for the amelioration of the horrors of warfare would progress to such a point as to put a stop to all Winter soldiering, so that a fellow could go home as

fore the Orderly Sergeant would draw me out by the heels, and acc

y terminated by hearing an e

OMPANY L!! T

, which one who has once heard it rarely forgets, and this was f

se-pr

thing of more interest o

ver belt went on, and eyes ope

ring. My Captain and First Lieutenant had taken up position on the right front of the tents, and part of the boys were running up to form a line

of a chap, and as we ran forward to the

his beat

d a clear idea

so deadly that they showed a disposition to cover themselves behind the rocks and trees. Again they were urged forward; and a body of them headed by their Colonel, mounted on a white horse, pushed forward through the gap between us and the Second Lieutenant. The Rebel Colonel dashed up to the

, and as we saw the fate of our companions the Captain gave the word for every man to look out for himself. We ran back a little distance, sprang

reach the gun first. The Rebels were too near, and got the gun and turned it. Before they could fire it, Company M struck them headlong, but they took the terrible impact without flinching, and for a few minutes there was fierce hand-to-hand work, with sword and pistol. The Rebel leader sank under a half-dozen simultaneous wounds, and fell dead almost under the gun. Men dropped from their horses each instant, and the riderless steeds fled away. The scale of victory was turned by the Major dashing against the Rebel left flank at the head of Company I, and a portion of the artillery squad. The Rebels gave ground slowly, and wer

der, and our men fell back to give the gun

of cornstalks, and they fell back to devise further tactics, g

ley, through which lay the road back to the Gap, was held by a force of Rebels evidently much superior to our own, and strongly posted. The road was a slender, tortuous one, winding through rocks and gorges. Nowhere was there room enough to move with even a platoon front against the enemy, and this precluded all ch

epulse at Knoxville. A gross overestimate of our numbers had caused the sending of so large a force on this errand, and the rough treatment we gave the two columns that attacked us first c

portion of the Rebel line on the east rushe

part of the Rebel line, and so it went on all day-the Rebels rushing up first on this side, and then on that, and we, hastily collecting at the exposed points, seeking to drive t

opholes in its walls, began replying to us pretty sharply. We sent word to our faithful artillerists, who trained the gun upon the house. The first shell screamed over the roof, and burst harmlessly beyond. We suspended fire to watch the next. It crashed through the side; for an instant all was deathly still; we thought it

s was a little cover, and behind this our men lay down as if by one impulse. Then came a close, desperate duel at short range. It was a question between Northern pluck and Southern courage, as to which could stand the most punishment. Lying as flat as possible on the crusted snow, only ra

word w

ne was a rolling torrent of flame, their bullets shrieked angrily as they flew past, they struck the snow in front of us, and threw its cold flakes

sed; they s

undrels, hell-hounds, s

ng up and tried to fly. The

ole line ro

cheered wildly, forgetting in our excitement to make

n the parade ground. He moved his little command to the hill-top, in close order, and faced them to the front. The Johnnies received them with a yell and a volley, whereat the boys winced a little, much to the Lieutenant's disgust, who swore at them; then had them count off with great deliberation, and deployed them as coolly as if them was not an enemy within a hundred miles. A

to feel that all his soldierly reputation was gone, but the boys stuck to their shelter for all that, inf

ad maintained the unequal struggle for eight hours; over one-fourth of our number were stretched upon the snow, killed or badly wounded. Our cartridges we

ls saw for the first time how few there were, and began an almost simultaneous charge all along the line. The Major

, he said, "Who is in

r replie

I demand y

your ra

of the Sixty-fo

Regular"-for such the Major was sw

never surrender to m

fire. They were covered by a dozen carbines in the hands of our men. The Adjutant ordered his men to "recover

hem was to snatch out the cylinder's of their revolvers, and the slides

e, the biting wind soughing through the leafless branches, the shadows of a gloomy winter night closing around us, the groans and shrieks of our wounded ming