shouldered my piece, but the sharp-shooters directly in front of me had disappeared. I stood a few seconds unresolved what to do; but feeling the pain increase, and seeing the blood beginning to appear more on the gaiter, and the officer commanding the company having come to the rear, and observing that I was wounded, he called to me to fall out, and I was induced to leave the ranks, but felt very reluctant to quit my comrades before the battle was decided: not that I loved to stay in a place of danger; but I did not like to leave them in the time of it; and had there been firing at the time, I should have continued to fire while I was able. As matters stood, however, I conceived it to be my duty, seeing I was disabled from keeping my place in the ranks, to make the best of my way, as long as I was able, to a place where I might be out of the reach of shot, and get my wound dressed, that it might not receive injury by delay. I got as quickly as I could to the rear, keeping my arms, accoutrements, and knapsack which I had on when wounded. The battle at this time was raging upon the right with terrible fury; and the brigade of guards immediately on the right of ours, were closely engaged. The roar of the artillery was dreadful. Daylight had now made both parties visible to each other; but the smoke of the firing obscured the distant view; so that, although the scene of contest was but a short way off from me, I could neither see our own line nor that of the enemy, all being covered with a thick cloud, through which nothing was visible, but the dark red glare of the flashes of the artillery. As I began to descend the height in the rear of the army, I was in imminent danger. The position of the brigade of guards, (which was on the right of ours,) and of the right of our own brigade, receded considerably from the spot on which our regiment stood, owing to the direction of the rising ground on which we were posted. In consequence of this, and of the positions of the enemy's columns and artillery, a large proportion of his shot, that had been fired at too high an elevation, fell in the rear of our regiment's tents. As I did not at the time observe this circumstance, I took the direct road from our own rear, to the landing place on Lake Maadie, distant about two miles. I was led by this route to cross the range of the falling shot. The musket and grape shot was coming down in showers, and further on, the large shot was striking and rebounding off the ground in rapid succession. I used all possible exertion to get through this danger; and, by the goodness of God, received no further hurt; while others, who, like myself, were wounded and retiring to the rear, did not escape. The exertion I had made, with the blood I was losing, which marked my steps in the sand, began to exhaust me; but I had the happiness of having my canteen full of water at the commencement of my retreat, which refreshed me.