epsakes were looked at again
for the last time, and silent prayers were offered by men unused to
look above. What an awful thing is war! Here lay, almost within
cannon-shot of one another, eighty or ninety thousand men--brothers
of the same race and nation, many of them blood relations;
thousands of them believing in the same Saviour, and worshiping the
same God, their prayers meeting that night at the throne of Heavenly
Grace;--yet waiting for the light of the holy Sabbath that they may
see how most surely to destroy one another! And yet the masses of
these have no ill feeling. It is human butchery, at the bidding of
arch-conspirators. Upon them be all the blood shed! A fearful guilt
is theirs!

What sleep the men could get on the cold, damp ground, with little
protection or fire, they secured during the early part of Saturday
night. On Sunday morning, the 6th of April, we were under arms and
ready to move by three o'clock.

General Hardee, one of the bravest men in the Confederate service,
led the advance and center, and made the attack. Had I not been
called to staff duty, I should have been in the advance with my
company. Glad was I that I was not called to fire upon the
unsuspecting soldiers of my Northern home. As the day dawned we
could hear the musketry, first in dropping shots, then volley after
volley, as the battle grew hotter. A little after daylight we
passed General Beauregard and staff, who were then over a mile in
rear of the troops engaged. He addressed each brigade as it passed,
assuring them of a glorious victory, telling them to fight with
perfect confidence, as he had 80,000 men available, who should come
into action as fast as needed; and wherever reinforcements were
wanted, Beauregard would be there. This boast of 80,000 men the
officers knew to be false, as he had not a man over 45,000; but as
he expected 30,000 under Price and Van Dorn he counted them in, and
added 10,000 more to strengthen confidence. But neither he nor any
other Confederate general asks any defence for such statements.
"Military necessity" will justify any course they choose to take in
advancing their cause. After we passed Beauregard, a few minutes of
"double quick" brought our division to Grant's advance pickets, who
had been surprised and cut down by Hardee's cavalry. This was the
first time many of the soldiers had seen men killed in battle, and
they stepped carefully around the dead bodies, and seemed to
shudder at th