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 Me Cretishtni- /{,<(/,,/. 365

anything but complimentary. But the mine has been sprung and all its attendant horrors have been depicted in the details of the war. Yet Petersburg the proud city still held up her head, and her Sabbath bells still rang her yet noble people to worship as of yore. Hour after hour was the sorely distressed city bombarded. Shells dropped in almost every part of the city.

We soon arrived at Butterworth's bridge, at the head of Halifax street, and remained there until the battle of the Crater was fought, atu-r which we were sent farther to the right and camped for some ten days in the vicinity of what was afterwards known as Fort Gregg.

General Grant now saw the futility of an attack in front and there- fore made another attempt to cut our communications. This time he sent a large force of cavalry, artillery, and mounted infantry, commanded by Generals Kautz and Spear. Marching rapidly, crossing the Jerusalem plank road they struck the Weldon railroad near Reams' station, after which they pushed on to the Southside road, destroying a good deal of property. Here they met our cav- alry under W. H. F. Lee, who followed them close until they reached a point on the Weldon railroad where the infantry of A. P. Hill's Corps, with the artillery, engaged them for some time, after which they attempted to reach their lines, not, however, before they had list their entire train of wagons and all of their artillery with several thousand prisoners. The Purcell Battery, of our battalion, did most excellent work in this battle. It was a laughable sight to see the prisoners captured here. They had in many instances robbed the private houses, and many dresses and other things which go to make up a lady's wardrobe, might have been seen scattered along the road as they attempted to regain their lines, besides many negroes follow- ing in thein wake. And now to show you how far these men not all, but a great many would go in this pillaging, robbing the inno- cent and inoffensive male and female alike, a gentleman told me who was doing guard duty at Libby prison during the war, that on one occasion he had been instructed to search a batch of prisoners who had just arrived from jhe front, when to his astonishment he found the deeds to a great portion of Fairfax county, which had evidently been stolen from the court-house of that county, showing conclusively that they were thieves.

We returned after this engagement to within a short distance of Petersburg, and camped, but we were not destined to remain quiet long, as General Grant was constantly endeavoring to find a weak