In The Ranks: From the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House: The War, as Seen and Experienced by a Private Soldier in the Army of the PotomacMcBride, R. E. (Robert Ekin)
History
In The Ranks: From the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House: The War, as Seen and Experienced by a Private Soldier in the Army of the Potomac
McBride, R. E. (Robert Ekin)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories -- Pennsylvania Infantry -- 190th; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories -- Pennsylvania Infantry -- 191st; United Stat
Now the enemy is seen advancing. Line after line comes swinging out.
Shells come screaming over. One explodes in front of Company D. Its
fragments sever the flagstaff close to Jim Shaffer's head, rip open Mike
Coleman's cap, tear off Culp's arm near the shoulder. Another bursts in
the house, and sets it on fire. A woman, bearing a baby in one arm and
leading by the hand a little child, comes out of the house, still
unharmed. Frightened and bewildered, she is passing along the rear of
the line instead of hastening away from it. A kind-hearted soldier
directs her toward a place of safety. But now the rebel lines are within
rifle range. Volley after volley is poured into them, and their ranks
melt before the terrible fire. In our front they falter; but toward the
right they see a chance for victory. They will swing around our flank,
and crush us as they did but an hour before. With exultant yells, their
left comes sweeping on, wheeling to envelop our right. But now there
bursts from the underbrush a blast as if from the pit, crashing,
tearing, grinding, enfilading their lines, leaving in its track a swath
of dead and dying. This is decisive, and the battle is won.
Over a hundred dead were counted in front of the Eleventh and the few
Bucktails on their right. One man was struck with a charge of grape, or
by a bursting shell, and his body from the knees to the neck was crushed
and torn into an indistinguishable mass.
John Stanley, who was wounded in this action, was a brave, noble boy.
Looking along the company line, with its veterans of so many battles,
the remnant of a hundred as brave men as ever followed a battle flag,
you would not have guessed that this boyish face could be the calmest in
the hour of trial. During that month of battles, he was always in his
place, without bravado, but with unflinching courage, doing his duty. I
saw him at the woods, as they were taking him from the field. His pale
face was as calm as ever. He never returned to us, nor did I learn the
result of his wounds.
The next morning the Reserves were withdrawn from the front. Their term
of service had expired. The veterans and recruits were reorganized,
forming the One Hundred and Ninetieth and One Hundred and Ninety-first
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The others started on their homeward
march.
Of Company D, fourteen men returned--five non-commissioned officers and
nine privates. Eleven had re-enlisted. Thirty-five were dead, of whom
twenty-three had been killed in battle or mortally wounded; and six were
prisoners in the hands of the enemy, of whom two died.
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