ily lost many men by the shots of the
sharpshooters who were perched in trees, and who kept up a fire at every
moving thing which showed itself within our lines.

Never before had our army been in a position where there was such
constant danger as at Coal Harbor. Men in the front line dared not leave
the cover of the breastworks except in the darkness of night, and even
then the movement of a company to the rear might bring on a storm of
shells. High breastworks were thrown up at all angles with the main
line, and deep trenches were dug, in which the men might pass to and
from the front without being observed. Even with all these extraordinary
precautions, no man was safe in venturing to go to the rear by daylight.
If a soldier collected the canteens of his companions and started to the
rear for water, he was obliged to crawl along the trenches with the
utmost secrecy, and even then he was liable to be shot. Not a day
passed, even when there was no battle, in which scores of men were not
killed or brought to the hospitals with severe wounds.

The whole plain occupied by our army was dug over. Far to the rear the
men had intrenched themselves. General officers had their tents erected
in deep excavations surrounded by embankments of earth, and special duty
men had each prepared for themselves burrows in the ground, many of
which were creditable specimens of engineering. One was reminded, in
riding over the plain, of the colonies of prairie dogs with their
burrows and mounds. Although we had but two days' actual fighting at
Coal Harbor, our losses were more than thirteen thousand men, while the
rebels suffered comparatively small losses.

Thus the army lay upon the burning sands of that arid plain, the greater
part of the line without the friendly shelter of a tree, weary, yet not
discouraged; grimy and dirty, and choked with dust, yet uttering no
words of complaint, for twelve days.

Troops commenced moving toward the rear on the morning of the 11th of
July, and it became known that we were to make no more attempts to force
the formidable position. General Grant had ordered another flank
movement, this time to the James river. Preparations for withdrawing
went on actively on the 10th and 11th; all the wounded were sent to the
White House, and the long trains of forage, ammunition and commissary
supplies which had been allowed to come far toward the front, began to
pass to the rear. On the 12th, Smith's corps was ordere