A day or two after that I observed from the lookout a small force of men in some activity on the side of the bluff opposite. With our glasses we could observe closely enough to distinguish an officer there. I had been accustomed to be drawn up to the top of the lookout, and to occupy the position there an hour or more almost daily between the hours of ten and twelve, when the atmosphere was clear, examining the condition of my picket line and camps, and the rebel works. Some days after this I went up to make my observations, as was my custom, and after spending an hour or more I was about to come down when I heard the report of a Whitworth gun, and the terrific shriek of its projectile, which was some two feet long and in shape a four-sided bolt, and, revolving on its axis, made a great noise. Turning my glass as the smoke cleared away, I saw that a small lunette battery had been erected on the bluff, and that from this battery the gun had been discharged. I knew then that the enemy proposed to knock me off my perch. The noise of the first explosion attracted my soldiers. They came running down from their tents behind the breastworks, and gathering at the foot of the tower, many of them kindly called out to me: “Come down, General, come down.”
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its being reported to me, a relay of signal officers being always stationed there to make observations through their telescopes, and by means of signal flags communication could be had with all the other points along my lines.
The very deep ravine of which I have spoken, lay between the lookout and the enemy's lines.
On the farther side of this ravine was a very high wooded bluff, the elevation of which from the bottom of the ravine to the top was quite equal to the height of the observatory, from which I could communicate by signals to City Point.
On the 9th of June General Beauregard sent the following despatch:--
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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