s in position on our right. But the
slaughter would have been horrible.

After midnight these outbursts became less frequent, and we officers lay
down with the men and tried to sleep. I do not think any of our general
officers or their staffs even sat down that whole night, so apprehensive
were they of the descent of the rebels upon our position. I said in the
last chapter that on Saturday morning some beef cattle were slaughtered
near our line for issue to our division; that the work of distribution
had not been completed before the panic came, and then these carcasses
of beef were between ours and the rebel line on "debatable ground." This
was too much for some of our men, and two or three crawled out to them
during the night and helped themselves to such cuts as they could make
from our side. One party next day told of being surprised by hearing
cutting on the other side of the beef, and found, on investigating, that
a "Johnny" was there, when the following colloquy took place:

"Hello, Johnny, are ye there?"

"Yes, Yank; too bad to let this 'fresh' spoil. I say, Yank, lend me your
knife, mine's a poor one. We 'uns and you 'uns is all right here. Yank,
I'll help you if you'll help me, and we'll get all we want."

The knife was passed over, and these two foes helped each other in that
friendly darkness. How much actual truth there was in this story I do
not know, but I do know that there was considerable fresh beef among the
men in the morning, and it was not at all unlikely that the Johnnies
also profited by the presence of that "fresh" between the lines.
Soldiers of either army would run almost any risk to get a bit of fresh
beef.

The next morning we were ordered to pile up our knapsacks and make a
breastwork of them for such protection as they might afford, in
anticipation of the still expected attack. We managed to make a cup of
coffee and eat a hardtack without getting off our guard for an instant,
and about ten o'clock the First Brigade, now Carroll's, and ours,
consisting of two regiments only, the First Delaware and ours, under
command of our Colonel Albright, were ordered forward into the woods to
the right of the Chancellorsville House. This was the opening of the
third day's battle. We moved forward in excellent line until we struck
the edge of the woods. The moment the crackling of the brush under our
feet apprised the enemy of our advance we received a heavy volley, which
must have been very hurried