Co. K participated with the Regiment in all the five days of action, being more or less under fire the entire time. Our first experience in line of battle was on a by-road leading out from Plank Road, about a mile east of Chancellorsville. Thick woods in our rear. Dense pine thickets in front. Fences were leveled. Shells crushing in tops of trees behind us. Balls occasionally zipping nearby, and enemy coming nearer, but could not be seen. In those moments of trial, what a study in human nature! The rebels came on in heavy columns. Our skirmishers are driven in. Orders given to fall back, and our going back through that brush was a terror. No order could be maintained. But once out of timber and on road, we were soon right again, and ever after were ready for the Johnnies. We had been initiated, practically blindfolded. In that first day of May and several days following Co. K was tested in nearly all phases of engagement, its chief work being constructing entrenchments and abatis; and in the hottest conflict on the third day, in support of Knapp's battery. In this particular service K had some protection in an embankment of a cross road, while shot and shell passed over in dreadful profusion. Capt. Stockton had shelter only by a little sapling, which was cut off a few feet above him, Lieut. Col. Frazier remarking, "rather a close call, Captain."
To a soldier in his first battle there are strange feelings and peculiar experiences. That the members of K shared in these may be indicated by a quotation from Corp'l Cooke's writings to me: "On the 1st day of May, '63, I saw the first wounded man as we marched out to support the skirmish line to the right of plank road east of Chancellorsville. The sight of the blood running down the man's face made me blind; but it soon passed away, and I never experienced the sensation again during the war, though I saw many worse sights. It was then the Company had several new experiences—lying in front of a battery to support it (in the open ground, just east of C.) lying in the woods at night while an occasional long-tailed, comet-like shell would shriek over us, while we buried our noses in the dirt and leaves; the wild experience of supporting the battery behind it, while it seemed all the artillery of the enemy was playing upon it. That Sunday artillery duel was the most terrific experience to me of the whole war. Yet, strange to say, there were but few casualties in K worthy of mention. That being our first battle many things were vividly impressed on my mind: the digging of trenches; the attack on Howard (by Jackson) that thundering Saturday night; the filing by of the 11th Corps the next morning; the disabled cannon swung under axles; the women pale and frightened, fleeing from the burning Chancellorsville houses, creeping along our trenches to find a place of safety; the band shelled while playing the "Star Spangled Banner"; the dragging off by hand (by detail from the 140th) the remnant of our battery in front; the falling back to a new line, and finally the retreat."
Much of our maneuvering was done in woods and tangling brush, very annoying. K withstood its baptism in battle well, and met the discomfiture, defeat and retreat of our army in very good spirits, sharing in the "ups and downs" in the march in rain and mud. Many expressed regret as we recrossed the river, for better things had been expected.
On the north side Lieut. Sweeney and Geo. McConnell were met, returning from their visits home. This was on the morning of May 6th. The march thence back to our old camps was made much "as you please," characteristically like American soldiering; but we got there O.K.—for supper, and that after considerable rustling. One thing was manifest, K had parted with many of its possessions in extra clothing, comforts, etc., and some essentials were lost. The fact is, when we were up in support battery on the 3rd, our knapsacks left by order, at trenches, were ransacked by camp followers. [See the Transcriber's Note] fact is, when we were up in support of battery on the 3rd, our knap- Wheeler, in arm; McCalmont, in foot; Briggs, in back; Chester, in leg; and J. W. Nickeson, thumb shot off. Corp'l W. L. Pry, in falling back to hospital, overcome with fatigue, accidentally shot himself in hand.
Comrade McClurg (who was with the Pioneer Corps, which, while laying pontoons, was shelled by the rebs and had to seek shelter till our cavalry drove the rebs away) reports that he cut slips from apple trees behind which he took refuge and sent them by letter to the man on his home place, and that today he eats apples from a large tree grown from the slips grafted on the two branches of a young tree then recently planted. (On a visit, in June, '04, the writer saw with much satisfaction this tree.)
On the 11th day of May, for sanitary effect, our camp was moved about a mile, and K soon had herself in summer array. On the 13th K was assigned to a new place in line and camp, other Companies, too, being changed. (C, B, K, I, A, H, G, D, F, E.) This changed K from left to right centre. On the 14th, the Orderly with a volunteer squad beautified the Company street, planting out little pines, etc.
On the 20th day of May, '63, Wm. A. Ruffner was discharged on surgeon's certificate of disability. And on the 21st K suffered the loss of Corporal W. L. Pry. The accidental wound had been followed by the amputation of the hand, and from some cause or other, it was deemed necessary to make another amputation. This time the whole arm. But the shock and loss of blood were too much. At 2:30 p.m. he died. Arrangements were made to embalm the body and ship it to Cross Creek, Pa., for interment. Serg't B. F. Powelson was given a three days' pass to accompany the remains as far as Washington, D.C. D. McC. Pry was promoted Corporal to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his uncle.
George Morrow, in the hospital at Washington, D.C., was reported as discharged on May 23rd, '63, on surgeon's certificate of disability. But a few days afterward there came the sad news of his death in the hospital. Thus seven of our number had already succumbed to death through sickness, and one from a wound.
To relieve the severities of soldier life friends at home had sent many extras in food and delicacies to the members of the Company and Regiment in camp.
The recollections of the closing days of May and the early days of June, too, to us are very vivid: the rigid drilling, the rumors of movements, and of Lee's army heading northward, the breaking up of camp streets with accumulated beans, rice, etc., that the same might not fall in the enemy's hands. And now we number ourselves for campaign and conflict.