1 LETTERS
FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS. May 13, 1862 Page 3 Column 4 1
LETTERS FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS.
From the Ringgold (104th) Regiment.
[We are permitted to make the following extracts from a Letter
from an officer of the Ringgold Regiment to his father in Doyle-
town. The letter was not written for publication, but it con-
tains news of deep interest to the relatives and friends of the
104th Regiment:]
CAMP NEAR MAGRUDER’S FORT, 1 MILE FROM.
WILLIAMSBURG, VA., May 7th, 1862.
I write you a line or two to let you know what we have
been at the last three days. On Sunday morning the
Regiment was ordered out to march to the front, a distance
of about a mile from our camp. As it was not known
that there would be much of an advance, the Chaplain
and I started on foot with the regiment. We marched
out, and the Brigade, was drawn up in line of battle, op-
posite the enemy’s forts ; an advance was then made and
we found the forts deserted. An immediate advance was
then ordered in this direction with all the Division. I fol-
lowed the Regiment about seven miles, and then came
across my horse, that I had sent back to camp for. I
was very glad to have so good a conveyance back to camp.
I started back to get rations up for the men, lost my way,
and did not reach camp until late at night. The next
morning, (yesterday,) I loaded two wagons with provisions
and started to find the Regiment. I was much retarded
in getting ahead, and did not reach the Regiment until
this afternoon. It rained all day, and I was in the saddle
the whole time, and soaked to the skin. I crept into one
of the wagons and laid down, and slept as well in my wet
clothes, and on a couple of cracker-boxes, as I would have
done at home in a good feather bed. The Regiment were
very glad to see my wagons come up, as they had received
nothing to eat for two days, and they were marching all
the time. We heard rumors last night that there had
been a big fight at this place; and on my arrival here, I
saw the evidences of it. The Rebels had seven forts in
this vicinity; one of them, the largest, is called Magru-
der’s, and is a well built line of works. Our men took the
forts one after the other at the point of the bayonet; and
at the fort below us, the slaughter was terrible on both
sides. After our troops had taken the lower forts an as-
sault was made by a Rebel brigade to recover the works,
but they were repulsed with terrible loss of life. The
Fifth North Carolina Regiment, leading the assault, was
allowed to come up to within fifty yards of the works
before our men opened fire on them. Then they were
swept down by companies, and hardly a platoon was left
of them. I was conversing this evening with a Captain,
(a prisoner,) who commanded a company of the Fifth
North Carolina Regiment. He informed me that of his
company, he did not think there were six men left after
the charge. He was shot in the arm above the elbow.
West of Magruder’s Fort the 5th Excelsior Regiment were
attacked by a whole Rebel brigade and were cut up badly.
A Captain of this regiment told me this evening, that they
lost in killed about one hundred and fifty men. It is a
sad sight to go over a battle field, and yet one of interest.
I saw men that had been killed in every way you could
think of—some with their heads torn off others with a
severed limb that had produced death by hemorrhage ;
some shot through the heart, others again with three or
four bullets through the head. The countenances of some
looked as if they had lain down to sleep and had suffered
no pain; others expressed the determined look of passion,
and some were distorted horribly, as if they had suffered in-
tense pain before death. I saw one or two faces with a
smile on them, as if death had come suddenly and with-
out pain. I noticed one man lying with one eye shut, as
if he had been killed while sighting his gun. A fair, deli-
cate young boy (a rebel); lay dead—killed by a bayonet,
which had entered his eye and come out at the top of his
head. It was a painful, sorrowful scene. But I must say
that I viewed it with an indifference that surprised me.—
Everyone has to look out for himself when in the field, and
as long as you escape, danger you do not think of others’
welfare. I was over, to see them bury the dead of Ex-
celsior Regiment, this evening. They buried eight or ten
in a grave together. There was a long line of graves.—
I think that the army will advance to-morrow beyond
Williamsburg.