hand and expressed my regret at
his misfortune, and hoped that he would soon be out of the hospital,
etc. I did not think that he could articulate. I saw that he was about
to speak, or to attempt it, and so I leaned over to catch his words. He
managed to say in a distressed voice that he was unable to eat popcorn.
I thought that he would get back to Rhode Island, and told him so.

While lying with my section on the right of Fort Saunders, on a cold,
wet day, the colonel commanding the brigade to which I was attached
directed his quartermaster to furnish me with a tent. There was sent
round an old sibley tent and my men pitched it a short distance in rear
of the line, on a slightly elevated dry patch of ground. I went inside,
but found that as the top of the tent was above our parapet, the rebels
were shooting bullets through the top in a lively manner. I went outside
and estimated about how low the shots could come through the tent. I
made a mark on the inside, and those who happened to be in the tent kept
heads below the line. The colonel referred to this line as the dead
line. A soldier brought to me a beautiful copy of the works of the Latin
poet, Virgil, and I spent the time in reading his poetic account of the
siege of "Lofty Ilium."

On the morning of the great assault upon our lines, Sergeant Charles C.
Gray was in charge of the fourth piece of our battery. He often loaded
his piece with double canister and fired with terrible effect, for the
range was only from fifteen yards to fifty yards. He moved his piece
from its first position en barbette on the right of the fort, to an
embrasure that more effectually commanded the rebel advance. Here he
fired with great rapidity, until the enemy appeared to recoil. He had
his gun loaded with double canister and ceased firing. At this time a
rebel officer climbed out of the ditch, and standing at the muzzle of
the cannon placed his sword upon it and said: "Surrender this gun." The
man who held the lanyard was ready to fire, and asked for the order.
Sergeant Gray replied: "Don't waste double canister on one man." At this
juncture, three other rebels came into the embrasure at the muzzle of
the gun, and then the order was given to "fire." Of these four men,
nothing was left but atoms. The brave sergeant was publicly thanked and
congratulated by General Burnside a few hours later. The Governor of
Rhode Island, at the general's request, sent him a commission as second
lieuten