there down toward
where we were and sought to get shelter in an excavation near by, where
many dead horses, killed in yesterday's fight, had been thrown. General
Gibbon said to these men, more in a tone of kindly expostulation than of
command: "My men, do not leave your ranks to try to get shelter here.
All these matters are in the hands of God, and nothing that you can do
will make you safer in one place than in another." The men went quietly
back to the line at once. The General then said to me: "I am not a
member of any church, but I have always had a strong religious feeling;
and so in all these battles I have always believed that I was in the
hands of God, and that I should be unharmed or not, according to his
will. For this reason, I think it is, I am always ready to go where duty
calls, no matter how great the danger." Half-past two o'clock, an hour
and a half since the commencement, and still the cannonade did not in
the least abate; but soon thereafter some signs of weariness and a
little slacking of fire began to be apparent upon both sides. First we
saw Brown's battery retire from the line, too feeble for further battle.
Its position was a little to the front of the line. Its commander was
wounded, and many of its men were so, or worse; some of its guns had
been disabled, many of its horses killed; its ammunition was nearly
expended. Other batteries in similar case had been withdrawn before to
be replaced by fresh ones, and some were withdrawn afterwards. Soon
after the battery named had gone the General and I started to return,
passing towards the left of the division, and crossing the ground where
the guns had stood. The stricken horses were numerous, and the dead and
wounded men lay about, and as we passed these latter, their low, piteous
call for water would invariably come to us, if they had yet any voice
left. I found canteens of water near--no difficult matter where a battle
has been--and held them to livid lips, and even in the faintness of
death the eagerness to drink told of their terrible torture of thirst.
But we must pass on. Our infantry was still unshaken, and in all the
cannonade suffered very little. The batteries had been handled much more
severely. I am unable to give any figures. A great number of horses had
been killed, in some batteries more than half of all. Guns had been
dismounted. A great many caissons, limbers and carriages had been
destroyed, and usually from ten to twenty-five men