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342 At four o'clock, I was near the centre of the regiment, and had just passed Web. Davis and Buckley, a friend of Doc. Nyce, who said they would go no further. I was ascending a small hill, to the right were fields, and at some little distance a wood. Upon the top of the hill on the left was a medium sized brick house. About opposite the house, a branch of the wood extended to within perhaps a hundred and fifty yards of the road. It was at this place, that the rebels first made their appearance, and commenced picking up the stragglers in the rear. Seeing all of our men jumping over the fences on the right, I followed suit, and found myself in a corn field. Nearly all were in the adjoining wheat field further on, so I directed my steps thither. Every one knows the disadvantage of going through a wet corn field, and how the mud clinging to the feet, impedes every moment. If in addition, they remember that I carried a pretty heavy load upon my back, was wearied with the previous fast tramping, and the “rebs” not far behind, they can form a pretty good idea of an unpleasant situation. I thought to myself, “Well, I wouldn't run across this field if the devil himself were after me,” and I do really believe, that if the whole rebel army had been within a few paces, I would have turned around to fight in a kind of determined desperation. So I walked slowly toward the rest. In this field, there was the greatest imaginable confusion. The officers were running around waving their swords, shouting and swearing, but no one dreamed of obeying them; the men having been previously all mingled together, were separated from their companies, and each fellow did as he thought proper. In fact they were compelled to do so, for the commands from half crazy Captains and Lieutenants were often unintelligible, and perfectly contradictory. Collected together in little knots, or standing alone, they commenced firing off