Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 1

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[323] artillery behind us became deafening. It poured shot and shell by concentrated firing upon those Confederate pickets and upon the sharpshooters in the edge of the town; but these active opponents were too well covered in houses, cellars, behind walls and buildings, and in deeply dug pits to be much disturbed. Neither musketry nor artillery, abundant as they were, lessened the enemy's galling fire.

Burnside came to our front in the afternoon and, noticing that the whole force in that vicinity was in waiting, sent for Woodbury and Hunt. Woodbury showed him the impossibility of getting any farther, now that the fog had cleared away and that his bridgemen had no cover from Confederate riflemen. Hunt mentioned the daring feat of crossing in separate boats. Burnside said: “Let us do that.” I selected Hall's brigade of my division for the trial. The instant Colonel Hall in the presence of his men asked who would go ahead in the precarious enterprise, Lieutenant Colonel Baxter and his entire regiment, the Seventh Michigan, volunteered to fill the pontoons. Woodbury undertook to get the boats in readiness, but the poor workmen, unused to soldiering, made only abortive attempts. Two or three would get hold of a big boat and begin to move it, but as soon as a bullet struck it in any part they would run back. Finally, Baxter said that his men would put the boats into the water. His soldiers did that at command, filled them with men and shoved off so quickly that the enemy's fire became fitful and uncertain. In going across the river one man was killed and several wounded, including Baxter himself. For his bravery Baxter was made a brigadier general.

As the boats struck the opposite shore the men disembarked