low from the
Seventh Maine, his heart and left lung torn out by a shell; then one
from the Forty-ninth New York, shot in the head; the next was from our
own regiment, Frank Jeffords, who had to suffer amputation of a leg;
then a man from the Forty-ninth was sent to the rear with his heel
crushed. In all, our loss did not exceed twenty men. The casualties in
the other brigades were less than in our own.

As night approached, the firing gradually ceased, and nothing but the
scattering shots of the skirmishers was heard. We lay down in the swamp
with no tents, and many of us without food. Officers and men built
platforms of logs and bark to keep out of the water where they were not
fortunate enough to find a dry place. General Smith bivouacked near the
line of battle, making his bed at the foot of a pine tree, with nothing
but his overcoat for shelter. It may not be amiss to say here that
General Smith, unlike most gentlemen with stars on their shoulders, was
always in the habit of sleeping at the very front.

All the following day, and the next, the firing was kept up steadily on
both sides. At night showers of cannister and grape would fall in our
camp, and fortunate was he who had a good tree or stump between him and
the rebel works against which to lay his head while he slept.

We at length became so accustomed to the continual skirmishing, that
unless the firing was in fierce volleys we took no notice of it. The
boys of the Thirty-third New York being on the skirmish line on the 8th,
charged a rifle pit with shouts and hurrahs, and drove the rebels from
it. An attempt was made to retake it, but the boys held their ground.

The men performed herculean labors on the roads, and in throwing up
earthworks. No rest was allowed. When not on picket they were cutting
down trees or throwing up earthworks or building bridges. Such constant
labor soon began to exhaust the strength of the stoutest, and hundreds
of them yielded to disease who supposed themselves capable of enduring
any amount of hardships. Yet there was now and then a grimly gay episode
in this hard routine. Here is an incident that occurred two or three
days after we approached the works, and affords a good sample of
picketing between us and the forts. Our pickets were within speaking
distance of those of the enemy; each party kept, if possible, snugly
behind some big stump or tree, out of the reach of his disagreeable
neighbors. A good deal of hard talk had pa