Gen. Burnside was in the fort at the time, and watched the battle over the parapet. He went from point to point along the west front, speaking encouragingly to the men, advising them to "keep cool, fire low, and be sure and hit something every time."
Towards evening the enemy ceased his efforts to push us further, seemingly contenting himself with occupying the heights in front of the Armstrongs. When the fog cleared we found that during the night the enemy had occupied a range of hills running from a point on the river south of the Armstrong house, thence along our west and north front to a point on Second Creek, while their pickets extended nearly to the Farwell road. A little later they established a battery upon this road and from it threw the first shells into the city. This line of the enemy was from three-fourths to one mile distant from our works, and as it became light enough we could plainly see their men at work throwing up breastworks for almost the entire length of their line.
All day long the pickets kept up a constant exchange of shots, which near the Armstrong house assumed the proportions of a fair-sized battle on several occasions during the day.
In the afternoon we raised a flagstaff in the fort and in a short time a flag was unfurled and heartily greeted by the men with cheers. The enemy desiring to honor the occasion, opened a furious cannonading upon the fort, fortunately doing us no damage. During this, the second day of the siege, bullets began to sing right merrily over the parapets and through the embrasures of the fort, a music which we were obliged to listen to day and night from this on for the seventeen days of the continuance of the siege.
The morning of Friday, the 20th, was cool and misty. The enemy had been very quiet during the night and allowed us to get a full night's rest; but at nine o'clock, when the new pickets made their appearance, they increased the vigor of their fire, causing the relieved men to hustle for all they were worth to get inside the fort.
During the afternoon bales of cotton had been hauled into the fort from the town, and gangs of negroes were employed to roll them onto the parapets for the better protection of the men. The interior crest being only about four feet above the banquette tread, the upper part of the bodies of the infantry were exposed to the enemy's fire. The bales of cotton were covered with raw hides to prevent their being ignited from musket fire. It began raining during the afternoon, and continued well into the night, and, as we were without tents, it made our situation rather uncomfortable.
A brick house on the Kingston road in the ravine below the Armstrong house had become a source of annoyance to our men; the rebel sharpshooters occupying it had from the windows kept up a most disastrous fire upon our pickets and the fort, the distance being about five hundred yards.
Gen. Ferrero determined to destroy this building, that it should furnish no further protection to the enemy, and ordered Col. Humphrey, commanding the brigade in its front to detail a regiment to proceed under cover of darkness of the evening, dislodge the enemy from the house and burn it. The Seventeenth Michigan, under command of Lieut. Col. Comstock, was chosen for this dangerous and difficult work.
The sortie was made at eight o'clock in the evening, so quietly and with such alacrity as to completely surprise the enemy. Many of them were captured, while others had very narrow escapes, such as taking advantage of the opening of a door by one of our men to slip under his arm and escape. This was not an easy thing to do, as many found, quite a number losing their lives in the attempt.