Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

[706] without having any distance to march. What the weariness of the tired men was, and of what they were tired, and their joy in knowing that they were marching to have some works to defend, cannot be better stated than by one of their number, then a private soldier, Frank Wilkeson of the Eleventh New York Battery, who for his gallantry and good conduct was soon after appointed a lieutenant in the regular artillery. He says :--¹

On the night of June 14, 1864, the battery to which I belonged went into park close to the James River, but not within sight of it.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

On the morning of June 15th we moved close to the James River and parked. I was lying under a tree near an old abandoned house. Below me and a little to my left, a pontoon bridge stretched across the muddy waters of the river James. A few steamboats were paddling to and fro, some ferrying troops across the river, others apparently doing nothing. The Second Corps troops were rapidly marching across the pontoon bridge, which swayed up and down under their heavy tread. On the other side was a village of tents and great piles of boxes. Many men were swimming in the river . . . .

Infantry hurried past us; batteries of artillery rolled by. We recognized some of the latter, and said: “There goes K of the Fourth United States Artillery;” and we waved our hands to the men whom we knew. There was a gap in the column of hurrying troops. Our captain swung himself into his saddle and commanded: “By piece from the right front into column, march!” and we were off for Petersburg. We crossed on the pontoon bridge, which had a peculiar earthquaky motion, and entered the village of tents. Thousand of boxes of hard bread and barrels of pork were there, but instead of being open and we helping ourselves as we marched, the troops were halted, and jammed, and irritated, by having to stand around with open haversacks, while a comparatively few commissary employees slowly dealt out the precious provisions to us. Hours were worth millions of dollars each on this flank movement. They were really priceless, and we dawdled away three of them in getting a little food into our haversacks. This was Potomac Army economy. The Second Corps, if the boxes of hard bread, and barrels of pork, and coffee, and sugar had lined the road, and we enlisted men had helped ourselves, might have carried off twenty thousand dollars worth of extra provisions; but we would have saved three hours, and they, if properly used, would have been worth one hundred million dollars each, and would have saved