A. J. Bennett, private , First Massachusetts Light Battery, The story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery , attached to the Sixth Army Corps : glance at events in the armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah, from the summer of 1861 to the autumn of 1864.

[156] carrying a large part of his first line. Forced back from the position which they had held upon the retirement of our cavalry on a new line, the Confederates maintained a stubborn and sullen resistance; nor did the effort of the Union corps relax,—the attack was continued with relentless energy, and with the natural result of great loss of life. It was estimated at nightfall that 2,000 men had fallen during the second attack. Subsequent reports show that the other corps repulsed repeated assaults upon their ranks, during the time of the engagement of the Eighteenth and Sixth corps.

Last night brought in, with the odor of the dewy grass and the foliage of the swamps, mingled with the cries of night birds, the summer of 1864. To-night brings a series of ineffectual attempts of the enemy to recover the ground which our sleepless and watchful troops have wrested from them during the day.

After daylight, June 2, the Second Corps was placed upon our left, while the Fifth, which had been to the north of the Eighteenth Corps at considerable interval, was extended to connect with the latter, which was upon our right. At the same time the Ninth was drawn in to Bethesda church. Reports of these last two movements show that they were not accomplished without opposition from the enemy, with the loss of prisoners. So this day was occupied in reforming and redisposing the Federal army. Meanwhile the air had collected much moisture, and there was a storm a few hours distant; in fact, a smart summer rain preceded the four o'clock in the morning assault, which the Second, Sixth, and Eighteenth Corps, in pursuance of Grant's plan to keep constantly hammering Lee's army, made upon the Confederate intrenchments. This lasted but a half-hour, but the sanguinary character of the contest was probably never surpassed during the campaign. Barlow's and Gibbons's divisions of the Second carried a part of the enemy's line. This success was not, however, permanent, nor was any decided advantage gained by the gallant action of the Eighteenth and Sixth. The Sixth and its companion corps intrenched themselves close to the enemy's main line of works. This, with the exception of an attack upon Gibbons's division of the Second Corps, at nine o'clock at night, which was repulsed, was the last important engagement in this campaign north of the Chickahominy.