Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/337

 Fortification and Siege of Port Hudson. 331

Watson's battery, Lieutenant Toledano; two pieces in Colonel Jolin- son's position having- been dismantled on May 27.

A JUNE DAY AT PORT HUDSON.

upon which the angle we were to assault was built, and we should be able to rush from shelter directly upon the works. The Seventy-fifth New York were to advance as skirmishers ; the Ninety-first New York were to close in rapidly with hand-grenades and drive the Rebels back from the angle ; the Twenty-fourth Connecticut were next to rush forward and fill up the ditch with cotton bags ; and then the balance of Weitzel's old brigade. The Eighth Vermont, the One- hundred-and-fifteenth and One-hundred- and-sixtieth New York, must scale the works, attack with the bayonet, and fight vigorously, till the whole division could be poured in the bridge. The column plunged into a thick wood, traversed it, and emerged upon the other side in view of the Rebel position.
 * * ^ A sheltered road had been cut around the base of the hill

Daylight was hardly with us yet. * * i consulted my watch. The hour was just 5 o'clock.

The sunken road, referred to in a previous paragraph, was cut closely around the hill, whose base we had reached, and wound in a semi-circle up toward the summit. It must have been two hundred yards in length, and was excavated to a depth of seven feet. There had been a brief halt at the edge of the wood for some purpose, but the column now moved rapidly forward, and as my regiment entered the shelter of the road, I heard the clear voice of the General shout- ing the order: "Fix bayonets."

The road was quite narrow — a group of fours filled it from side to side. Struggling 10 urge forward the men in front of us, we tried in vain to press on.

Step by step, little by little, the column struggled upward. Two human currents were setting past each other — one strong and vigor- ous, the other feeble and halting — limping back to the rear in a ghastly procession, which warned us of the reception with which we were to meet.

General Weitzel's aides were endeavoring to make their way on foot through the dense mass, now up towards the front, and again back to the rear. It must have been more than half an hour from the time that my regiment entered the sunken road until it emerged from the other extremity under fire. The sides of the cut began to