the enemy had left our
front.

While waiting for the horses to be brought up to take off the guns, an
infantryman told me that a cow had been killed, between the lines, and
was lying down there in the woods, in front.

We had had an awful time about food, for the last week, and were hungry
as wolves. This news about the cow was news indeed. I told several of
the boys, and off we started to get some of that cow! We found it lying
just in the edge of the woods. It was a hideous place to go for a
beefsteak! All around, the ground was covered with dead Federal
soldiers, many in an advanced stage of decay. The woods had been on
fire, and many of these bodies were burned; some with the clothing, and
nearly all the flesh consumed! The carcass of that cow was _touching
five dead bodies_,--which will give an idea of how thick the dead were
lying. Many of their wounded had perished in the flames, which had swept
over the ground.

=Grant's Neglect of Federal Wounded=

We had witnessed all these horrors, with our own eyes, days before, from
our lines, and had been helpless to do anything for them. Hundreds of
wounded Federal soldiers lay between the lines, day after day, and
perished for want of help. Several of us, unable to bear the sight of
their suffering, went out one day to carry them food and water, and the
Federals fired upon us, and wounded one of our men, then we had to leave
them alone. They could not or would not care for their wounded, and
would not let us do it. It _was stated_ among us that General Lee had
sent an offer to General Grant to permit him to send, and care for his
wounded, near our lines; and he refused. And then General Lee offered,
if Grant would suspend hostilities for some hours, that _we_ would care
for his wounded rather than see them suffer, and die, before our eyes;
Grant refused that proposal too!

Certain it is, these poor fellows were left to their fate and perished,
miserably, by wounds and famine, and fire. Their many dead, in our
front, lay unburied until the odor from them was so dreadful that we
could hardly stay in our works. It may be that General Grant had this in
mind, and was determined that, if his _live_ soldiers couldn't drive us
out of the works, his _dead_ ones should. Well! he had his way of making
war! And on account of his inhumanity to his wounded, his _own men_
thought as _ours did_, that his way was very brutal! I heard his own men
curse him bitterly. They called him