Correspondence
Spotsylvania County, Va.,
Thursday afternoon, May 19.* * * Tuesday evening at nine o'clock we received orders for an immediate movement. We were off in fifteen minutes, and marched fast all night from the extreme left to the extreme right of the army, and at a little past four yesterday morning were formed in line of battle in a dense woods. No sooner formed, than rebel shell began to burst all around and among us. We advanced a short distance into a rifle pit, where we were protected. Here the First and Second Battalions were moved to the right, and we did not see them again. Very soon we were advanced into another line of rifle pits, where one man of the Second Vermont was killed, and two or three of our men were wounded. Very soon the order forward was again given, and we charged over in excellent order, in the very front line of pits. You must remember that the rebels were not in sight all this time; they were firing from a masked battery, and their sharpshooters were behind trees. We were now out of the woods, on the same ground which was fought over last week, and two lines of the pits spoken of were thrown up by the rebels themselves, so that we were on the wrong side of them; but we were mighty glad to get even a wrong side of a rifle pit. The shells were now playing around us very fast. The men were well disposed, and I was just preparing to get into a safe place myself, when my noble adjutant, Glazier, who stood near me, was hit by a cruel shell, and his left arm torn almost completely off. It was a horrible wound. With my own hands I put a tourniquet on above it, and detailed a corporal and four men to take him off the field. He turned to the colonel just as he was leaving, and said, "Colonel, I hope you will get the victory." In less than half an hour the colonel himself, while standing near me with drawn sword, and just preparing to advance the battalion over the rifle pit into the open field beyond, was wounded by a sharpshooter, the ball passing in behind the ear and coming out in the middle of the back of the neck. The vital parts escaped, and it proved only a flesh wound. He was taken off the field, but in three or four hours came back with his wound dressed. At about one P. M., after experiencing a second smart shelling, we were ordered to withdraw from the rifle-pit over an eminence to the left. Here we saw that the whole forces engaged were being withdrawn. We were massed with many thousands, and all made coffee and took some hard-tack. If it was a battle, nothing could have been gained; if it was intended merely as a reconnoissance, it may have been successful. I do not know. I did not come out satisfied with the day's work. About fifteen of our men were wounded, but none killed. They behaved like veterans, and earned much credit. We were under fire, more or less severe at times, for about eight hours...
Source: George Ephraim Chamberlin, "Letters of George E. Chamberlin, who fell in the service of his country near Charlestown, Va., August 21, 1864," (H. W. Rokker, Springfield, Ill., 1883), pp. 318-319.
