"About daybreak on the 25th, the enemy attacked toward the left, drove in our pickets—Capts. Weld and Thayer in command—but were checked before reaching the main line. The regiment was placed in support of Battery England (No. 5). Two men were wounded.
"Some changes in the division here took place—the Twenty-ninth Connecticut was transferred to another brigade, and the Tenth U. S. C. T. to ours, and Col. Duncan was placed in command.
"About noon (25th) packed up everything, crossed the Appomattox, and after a fatiguing march through the heat and dust, reached the Petersburg front a little before sunset and halted for orders. Soon after dark moved to the left in a heavy rain squall, and lay down on a hillside as reserve to the troops in the trenches. At 11 p. m. ordered to report to Gen. Terry. Marched back a mile and reported. Another mile's march in another direction brought the regiment, about 1 a. m., to its position, where it lay down in the woods, again as a reserve. A rattling fire of musketry was kept up all night.
"On the 26th, a camp was selected and had been partially cleared up, when orders were received for the regiment to go into the trenches. Reported at brigade headquarters at sunset, and soon afterward, through the mud and darkness, the men silently felt their way into the trenches, which the rain had reduced to the condition of a quagmire. It was a slow process, and 10 o'clock came before all were in their places.
"During the following day (27th,) the parapet was raised and paths made through the muddier portions of the trenches. Soon after dark a furious cannonade began which lasted for several hours, and afforded to the spectators on both sides a brilliant pyrotechnic display.
"Just after daybreak on the 28th, the enemy opened a heavy musketry fire which lasted until after sunrise. He did not leave his works, however, and our men remained stationary. A man of Company B, while watching for a shot through a section of stove-pipe, which he had improvised into a port-hole, was struck and killed by a sharpshooter's bullet.
"Soon after midnight on the 28th-29th, the regiment moved out of the trenches, and after daylight marched a quarter of a mile to the right and rear and went into camp in a cornfield. The men were at once put to work constructing bomb-proofs, as the position was within sight and range of the enemy's line. This occupied the entire day.
"Brig.-Gen. Birney's arrangement of the brigade did not seem to have given satisfaction to higher authority, and it was broken up, and the old brigade—Seventh, Eighth, Ninth U. S. C. T., and Twenty-ninth Connecticut—were again united, with Col. Shaw in command.
"From this time until the 24th of September, the Seventh and Eighth alternated with the Ninth and Twenty-ninth for duty in the trenches—two days in and two out; and on the 'off' days furnishing details of officers and men for fatigue purposes, in constructing new works and strengthening old ones. The main lines at this point were scarcely over a hundred yards apart, while from the advanced posts a stone could almost be thrown into the enemy's works, and it was considered the most disagreeable portion of the line.
"During the evening of the 4th of September, there was a grand salute along the whole line, in honor of the fall of Atlanta. At every battery the men stood at the guns, and when the monster mortar—"The Petersburg Express"—gave the expected signal, every lanyard was pulled. The effect was exceedingly grand.