iousness I found myself lying in the ditch on the
inside of the breastwork, trampled under the feet of the men, and with no
knowledge whatever of how I got there. It is possible that I was taken for
a rebel when I sprang up so suddenly on top of the breastwork and that I
was knocked there by a blow from one of our own men. I was lying across
the body of a wounded man who had been hit by a bullet which, entering at
his cheek, had passed out the back of his head. He was unconscious, but
still breathing. The breast of my coat was smeared with the blood from his
wound. The press was so great that I could not get on my feet, but in a
desperate effort to avoid being trampled to death managed in some way to
crawl out between the legs of the men to the bank of the ditch, where I
lay utterly helpless with burning lungs still panting for breath. My first
thought was of the rebels I had seen crossing the breastwork, and I looked
toward the pike. I had crossed our line close to a cotton-gin that stood
just inside our works and the building obstructed my view except directly
along the ditch and for a short distance in rear of it.

Our men were all gone from the ditch to within a few feet of where I was
lying. A little beyond the other end of the building stood two cannon
pointing towards me with a group of rebels at the breech of each one of
them trying to discharge it. They were two of our own guns that had been
captured before they had been fired by our gunners and were still loaded
with the double charges of canister intended for the rebels. Fortunately
the gunners had withdrawn the primers from the vents and had taken them
along when they ran away and the rebels were having difficulty in firing
the guns. As I looked they were priming them with powder from their musket
cartridges, and no doubt intended to fire a musket into this priming. Just
then I was too feeble to make any effort to roll my body over behind the
cover of the building, but shut my eyes and set my jaws to await the
outcome where I was lying. After waiting for some time and not hearing the
cannon, I opened my eyes to see what was the matter. The rebels were all
gone and the ditch was filled with our men as far as I could see. If the
rebels had succeeded in firing those two cannon they would have widened
the breach in our line so much farther to our left that it might have
proved fatal, since the two brigades holding our line, from the vicinity
of the cotton-gin to t