A. J. Bennett, private , First Massachusetts Light Battery, The story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery , attached to the Sixth Army Corps : glance at events in the armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah, from the summer of 1861 to the autumn of 1864.

[150] wheeled into position. Gen. Sedgwick, riding down between our guns, rallied and reformed our infantry line, and hurled back the enemy. The Ninth Army Corps arrived during the night of the 5th of May; and it is said that Longstreet's corps on the other side also reached the field. The battle was renewed with vigor at dawn. There were shifting movements and attacks all day long, much loss of life, but an indecisive engagement from the standpoint of either contestant; we remember that about five o'clock there was a considerable number of Confederate prisoners within an enclosure bounded by a picket-rope; this was to the rear and left of us; a Confederate charge, with the characteristic yell, was made in their front, and the boys in butternut suits within the picket-rope set up a responsive yell, which was somewhat disagreeable, not to say exasperating, so that, in the excitement of the moment, some one shouted to the guard, ‘Bring your guns to bear upon them!’ The guard had sufficient sense to perceive the foolish excitability of the speaker.

During the night of the 6th, the line was intrenched, and all day on the 7th, the position of our force was unchanged. Both armies were evidently sufficiently exhausted to preclude a renewal of hostilities. These hours of inaction were only the calm before a storm, or a breathing spell, during which the combatants tacitly agreed to briefly relax their hold, that they might renew it with fresh advantage.

After dark, we were again in motion by the left flank for a way, and then by the right; in brief, we marched to the east, and then south. If the Confederate commander anticipated a retrograde movement on our part, such as he had become somewhat familiar with, and had thrown any troops toward Germanna Ford, it would only show that he had yet to learn the tactics of Gen. Grant; for the great Federal commander led his army by and beyond the right of the Confederate force, and advanced ten miles farther south. Incidentally he secured a short base of supplies by way of Fredericksburg; and it is fitting to notice at this juncture the wonderful capacity of the great general to grasp and provide for the minute details of the gigantic task that had been allotted to him. We received three days rations on leaving Brandy Station, and at the end of each day and a half received three days more, until, we believe, we arrived at Cold Harbor. That is to say, having