Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/308

 502 Southern Historical Society Papers.

an equality with white men. How times have changed! Then a negro was denied the privilege of fighting for his master, but since then he has disported himself and made laws for that same master in legislative halls.

Presently the enemy debouched in front of us and Latham, until then as silent as the grave, ran two of his pieces (I think he had t\\> at that point) out into the road and opened on them. His com- mand, " Ready! " "Aim! " " Fire! " repeated each time in stento- rian tones, could plainly be heard from one end of the line to the other, and we all felt for the first time that peculiar elation which the booming of our own cannon always produced. This was the first taste of our masked battery which the enemy got, and it proved unpalatable, as they scampered away in great haste. After they retired, Latham turned his attention to two of their guns in the road in front of him and " knocked them into pie." We saw them there the next day spiked and abandoned where they stood. Though not occupied ourselves for some time after that, we began to hear the increasing roar of battle over on the extreme left, about the Henry House. An Alabamian came down to our line and told us bad news from that quarter. He said our men were being cut to pieces and driven back. Then came an order for us to double-quick to the left. Out of our rifle-pits we tumbled, coming into line on the plain in rear of our former position. Just as we started at a double-quick, the enemy saw us and commenced to shell us. I saw a rifle shell almost spent pass close to the head of our column, bounding and "swapping ends" as it went. It came very near the long legs of a tall, lanky sergeant, and he jumped up about three feet as it passed under him. This ugly customer seemed to take all the starch out of the fellow, for he dropped out behind a tree just before we reached our position on the left, and the last I saw of him that day he was parting with his breakfast, swallowed so eagerly a short while before. I never suffered so from heat before or since. I believe when we halted my tongue was almost hanging out. We crossed a small branch, and I dropped down and drank out of a bloody pool where some of the wounded had been washed. I could not help it. My thirst was intolerable.

FEARFUL ROAR OF ARTILLERY.

We were halted and ordered to lie down behind a slightly-rising ground covered with stunted pine and oak bushes, and the enemy continued to shell us savagely. Presently we saw a long column of