oot at and the sky was blue. But it was a fact, that
when the enemy advanced next morning, this big regiment was positively
"Hors du Combat."

It is true, that when we woke up at daylight, and found what they had
done, we jeered, and laughed at them, and showed them the impossibility
of fighting from behind that wall, until some of them got ashamed, and
began to shovel down the top, a little. Captain McCarthy sent to let
General Kershaw know the absurd situation we were in,--supported by
infantry that could not fire a shot, and warning him, that if the enemy
charged, they would certainly take the line, unless our two guns alone
could hold it. General Kershaw sent orders to them "to shovel that
thing down to a proper height," but they didn't have time to do it. When
the fight began some of them had cut out a shelf on the inside of the
bank, and some of them had gotten boxes and logs and a number stood up
on them, and did some shooting, and behaved gallantly; but many of them
seeming to think that a man should be "rewarded according to his works"
laid closely down behind that wall, and never stirred.

The next night General Lee took them out of the lines, and gave them
picks, and shovels, and made a "sapping and mining corps" of them,--the
military service they were most fitted for, and they _were_ rewarded
according to their works.

While these beavers were gallantly wielding the pick and shovel, we,
satisfied with our little bank of dirt, were getting ready for next
day's work, by a good sound sleep. One of our boys did have misgiving
about the strength of our defences. He went in the night, and woke up
Sergeant Moncure and said, "Monkey, don't you think these works are very
thin?" "Yes, Tom, they are," he replied. "You just get a spade, and go
and make them just as thick as you think they ought to be; Good night!"
He resumed his slumbers, and Tom, not an overly energetic person, walked
away grumbling that "the work _was_ too thin, but he would be derned if
_he_ was going out there, in the dark to work on them, all by himself,"
which he didn't.

Somehow when we lay down this night we had gotten the impression that
things were going to be rough, in the morning. They were!

Just as the day dawn was struggling through the clouds, we were roused
by the sound of several guns, fired in quick succession. We were on our
feet instantly, and saw that all was ready for action. Shells came
howling at us from batteries that we