r fort to cause us much
annoyance. General Ferrero, who commanded this portion of the line,
decided to capture the house in a night attack. This was made in the
evening at 8 o'clock, so quietly and quickly that the enemy were
surprised, and some surrendered and some ran away. The house was
destroyed.

A little incident occurred in the fort at this time that I have never
forgotten. I had held the view, with most others, that it is a matter of
instinct for a person to jump or dodge if anything unexpected comes upon
him through any one of the senses. Lieutenant S. N. Benjamin, the chief
of artillery of the army, often reprimanded his men for dodging, and so
did General Ferrero, and General Ferrero told a story how a soldier was
hit when he dodged; had he gone right along the bullet would have missed
him. I had noticed Lieutenant Benjamin on several occasions under a warm
fire, and he paid no attention to the whistling balls. On the night in
question General Ferrero and staff and about every commissioned officer
in the fort were standing inside Fort Saunders awaiting the advance of
our Seventeenth Michigan regiment upon the house. We had waited several
minutes after 8 o'clock, and began to wonder why the attack had not been
made. Suddenly there came right at us a heavy volley from the house.
This was so unexpected that down went General Ferrero, and Lieutenant
Benjamin was almost prone upon the ground. My opinion is that all
present dodged more or less, but none so low as the officers named.

On the 21st, Saturday, the work upon the fortifications still went
steadily on. The garrison of Fort Saunders consisted principally of the
Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders and Benjamin's and Buckley's
batteries. Other infantry was close at hand, which could be called upon
in an emergency. From the 21st to the 28th nothing unusual occurred.
The enemy seemed to be busy on the south side of the Holston occupying
a high knob with artillery, but so far off that we gave it but little
attention. With 24-pound howitzers they could nearly reach our own main
line. Had he been able to capture the knob which our people had strongly
fortified, it would have been very disastrous to us.

Nov. 28, 1863, opened cold and rainy. The outside of the parapet of Fort
Saunders was coated with ice. From indications that all observed, it
seemed that the assault upon our line was near at hand. The enemy seemed
to be pushing troops toward the right of Fort Sa