While the doctor was fixing us up our regiment marched by and there is nothing in all my war memories that made a deeper impression on me than that scene.
I see them now as I saw them on that bright May morning—father, friends, comrades, marching with steady step, shoulder to shoulder, on to meet the foe in mortal encounter.
We followed in the rear of the regiment and were halted just under the brow of a hill, where we stood in line nearly two hours. Bullets clipped small branches from the trees and shells went swishing through the air over our heads. A couple burst in front of us and an occasional solid shot would go rolling down the hill.
Probably there is no more trying situation for troops to be placed in than to be held as a reserve during a battle. The tension on one’s nerves is something awful. If one is going to be shot it is something of a satisfaction to be able to return the compliment.
While the regiment was in line a few of us hunted up a spring and carried water to our friends who could not leave the ranks. One of the few times that I remember seeing tears in my father’s eyes was when I handed him a canteen full of water that morning.
The fighting in our front ceased about ten o’clock and we were moved about two miles to the left. In the afternoon we settled down in some woods and were permitted to take the rest we so much needed, and the next morning we were a jolly lot as we sipped our coffee and nibbled hardtack.
Some of the men grumbled, however, because we did not get a chance to take a hand in the affair of the day before.
The forces of Grant and Lee, numbering some 200,000, had been hammering away at each other for about ten days and the carnage had been great, but the forenoon of the day in mind was as quiet and peaceful as if there was not an armed man within ten miles.
It was but the calm before a storm, and scores of our regiment who were so full of life and hope that bright May morning were weltering in their blood before sundown.
About two o’clock in the afternoon an orderly with foam-covered horse rode up to our colonel and handed him a message. The men noticed that the color came to the officer’s face and they held their breath for the command that they knew was coming.