Waitt, Ernest Linden, History of the Nineteenth regiment, Massachusetts volunteer infantry , 1861-1865

[236] hundred yards. The air was full of grass and dirt cast from the soil by the jagged rebel iron. Moses Shackley, Second Lieutenant of Co. B, Nineteenth Massachusetts, sprang up, grasped the bucket, and, with a merry laugh, through dust and smoke, amid whizzing balls and bursting shells, which screeched down the path he was compelled to take, coolly walked down the slope toward General Meade's Headquarters and stooped over the spring. A round shot struck the ground between his feet, but did not harm him and he returned safely over the fireswept plain.

‘The water is cold enough, boys,’ he shouted, ‘but its devilish hot around the spring.’

The gallant deed and the merry jest drew cheers from those who, with bated breath, had watched the journey. Lieut. Brown, bareheaded, again called out: ‘For God's sake, Colonel, let me have twelve men to work my gun.’

The men heard it and looked into each other's eyes. Can I? Snellen, the sailor soldier from Marblehead,—struck already by one spent ball,—limped to the front. ‘I'm one boys! Who's the next?’ he said. Then Capt. Mahoney and Sergeant ‘Billy’ McGinnis, of Co. K, Sergeants Cornelius Linnehan and Matthias Bixby, of Co. F, and twenty more immediately responded, and did excellent service. They replaced the broken wheels, brought ammunition from the limbers, and fired the guns. Lieut. Shackley had been lying by the side of Sergt. Benjamin H. Jellison, who bore the colors. ‘Come, Jellison, let's go and help,’ he said, ‘we might just as well get killed there as here,’ and in a moment he was conspicuously showing great courage and coolness, walking from piece to piece, encouraging and assisting the men. Jellison was finally ordered back to the colors by Col. Devereux.

During the cannonade, the Nineteenth and Forty-Second New York, composing the second line of men, suffered some loss, as did the first line, as the rebel gunners trained their pieces on the artillery along the top of the ridge, thus throwing most of their shells into these lines. The headquarters of Gen. Meade, which were directly in the rear of the location of the Nineteenth, were shelled so severely that they were removed to another position.