Author: Mary A. Newcomb

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 9781230450230

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... 1862, when thirty-eight thousand men were camped on the shore of the Tennessee, ready to march at the word of command? Saturday is always a welcome day to the soldier when in camp. No tiresome drill on Saturday, nor everlasting roll-call; on the morrow he can write to the loved ones at homo. They felt secure as they lay down on this Saturday night, to dream of wifo and babe. Everything about them was calm and lovely. The scenery was beautiful, the orchards were already in full bloom, the grass was green, birds were singing in the dense woods; the odor of wild flowers was in the air. Everything told that spring had come. CHAPTER III. THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. At the dawn of day the long roll called to arms, and in a few minutes every man was ready to move. A dispatch was sent to General Grant at Savannah to bring him to the scene of action. I stood at the bow when the General's orderly led his beautiful black horse off the boat, and the General, with an unlit cigar in his mouth, waved a salute to the crowded boats, mounted his horse and galloped off up the hill. Pittsburg Landing is only a " landing," to which the farmers hauled their crops for transportation to other points. A stretch of level ground skirted the river; this was churned into a mortar bed by the teams that had hauled army supplies, and the mud was a foot or more deep. Back of this level was a steep high hill, and the soldiers had made roads across the level through the woods and up the hillside and for several miles back from the river, leading to the camps of the different divisions. There was one old house on the top of the hill overlooking the river--the only one for two miles from the river. While the heavy firing by the gun-boats up the river was in progress, I started...