Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/71

 J/rper's Ferry and First Manassas. 65

room enough for itself, so that our battery was scattered along the line. We were immediately in front of a piece of woods in the edge of which the brigade to which we belonged, and which that day gained for itself the soubriquet "Stonewall'' was lying, and which unfortunately received most of the shells aimed at us. On taking position we immediately unlimbered and commenced firing, and kept it up for about two hours and a half, from 12 to 2:30 P. M. How well I remember that day! Liv. Massie, 11 No. i, sponging and ramming, Dave Moore," No. 4, inserting the friction primer and pulling the lanyard, Lyt. Macon," No. 5, not performing the duties of No. 5, as I was acting in that capacity that day, but receiving the shot from me and giving them to No. 2, assisting also to roll up the gun after each recoil, and talking all the time, Bill Brown, 14 Cor- poral, coolly and deliberately aiming the piece, and making almost every shot tell, and Joe Packard," No. 7, receiving the shot from No. 6 at the limber, advancing a short distance, and giving them to me as I went to and fro between the piece and the limber. Our little 6-pounder, which we thought more of than we would now of a 3O-pounder Parrott, did good work that day. Our captain oc- casionally passed us, going from one piece to another to see that we were doing our duty, and shrugging his shoulders as a shell would come rather close for comfort. I saw him once or twice near our piece, conversing with him a short while, and I thought he was oc- cupied most of the time in going up and down the line. During the action a limber chest was blown up, belonging to a piece of Stan- ard's battery, on our immediate left. The wheel-horses fell as if they had been struck by lightning, and it quite astonished us for a while, tho' it didn't interfere with our work. The musketry fire on our left gradually grew hotter and hotter, and presently what was our surprise to receive orders for all the artillery to leave the field! We went off as rapidly as possible, feeling very doubtful as to which party would gain the day, and thinking that the withdrawal of the artillery looked badly for us but we didn't know.

CAMP NEAR GORDONSVILLE [VA.],

Tuesday, December 22, 1863.

I have put off writing here for some time, owing to movements of the army and absence from camp, but I will endeavor to continue now and keep up this record more regularly.