Weeping, sad and lonely,We could hear our batteries on Morris Island, and often shells would pass over us. The second night we were there two rockets were sent up near the jail, and after that the line of fire was changed. The rebels could not account for the rockets and all concluded that they were discharged by our spies, or Union men in the.city. Our home was under a window of the jail. Sometimes it would rain all night and we would have to sit crouched against the walls. Our rations were mostly rice, and we had not half wood enough to cook it properly. Each day a four-foot stick of wood was issued to twenty-five men; we would cut it up into twenty-five little piles, one man would turn his back and another would call the names of the mess, at the same time pointing to a pile of wood. If by a chance he or one of his friends received a sliver more than another some one would declare that there was an understanding between the two. We were visited by the rebel generals Johnson and Thompson, who had returned from our lines, and after that our rations were less than before. One day the rice was so poor and so full of bugs that we refused to accept it and held an indignation meeting. We drew up a petition to General Jones, the rebel officer commanding the department, asking,
O, how bad I feel,
Down in Charleston, South Carolina,
Praying for a good square meal
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Chapter
8
: battles of
Chancellorsville
,
Thoroughfare Gap
and
Gettysburg
.--wounded at
Gettysburg
and ordered home.
Chapter
9
: regiment ordered home.--receptions.--my
first
call upon
Governor
Andrew
.--return to the front.
Chapter
10
: battles of the
Wilderness
,
Todd's Tavern
and
Laurel Hill
.--Engagement at the
Bloody Angle
.
[123]
and at night we could hear them singing in their cells.
I remember a part of one song.
It was a parody on “When this cruel war is over,” and ran as follows--
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