SUMNER’S “RIGHT GRAND DIVISION.”
116
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THE NINTH COUPS GROSSING J 1Y THE PONTOON-BRIDGE TO THE STEAM-BOAT LANDING AT THE LOWER END OF THE TOWN.
of the fact that some-body in our front wasdoing a great deal ofshooting. I found thebrick house packed withmen; and behind it thedead
were as thick as theycould be crowded to-gether. The dead wererolled out for shelter,
and the dead horses were used for breastworks. I know I tried to sheltermyself behind the brick house, but found I could not, on account of themen already there. The plain thereabouts was dotted with our fallen.I started to cross to the fork of the road where our men, under Colonel JohnR. Brooke , were holding the cluster of houses.
When it became dark the wounded were being brought off the plain, andHooker was talking about relieving my men in front by putting in Sykes’sdivision, and I said, “No ! No men shall take tiro place of the Second Corpsunless General Sumner gives the orders. It has fought and gained thatground and it shall hold it.” Later the order came for Sykes to relieve theSecond Corps, which was done about 11 o’clock.
That night was bitter cold and a fearful one for the front line hugging thehollows in the ground, and for the wounded who could not be reached. Itwas a night of dreadful suffering. Many died of wounds and exposure, andas fast as men died they stiffened in the wintry air, and on the front linewere rolled forward for protection to the living. Frozen men were placed fordumb sentries.