known to and unknown by the troops
of the Nineteenth Army Corps. Instead, therefore, of giving him
the command of Sherman's division, for which his rank indicated
him, Banks kept Stone at headquarters without special assignment,
and made every use of his activity, as well as of his special
knowledge and ready skill in all matters relating to ordnance and
gunnery.

On the evening of the 26th of June a strange thing happened. While
it was yet broad daylight Colonel Provence of the 16th Arkansas,
posted in rear of the position of battery XXIV, discovering and
annoyed by the progress made on battery 16 in his front, sent out,
one at a time, two bold men, named Mieres and Parker, to see what
was going on. After nightfall, on their report, he despatched
thirty volunteers, under Lieutenant McKennon, to drive off the
guard and the working party and destroy the works. The position
was held by the advance guard of the 21st Maine, under Lieutenant
Bartlett, who, for some reason hard to understand, ordered his men
not to fire. The Arkansas party, therefore, accomplished its
purpose, without further casualty than having one man knocked down,
as he was leaping the parapet of the trench, by a soldier who
happened to consider his orders as inapplicable to this method of
defence. Then Major Merry, with the reserves of the 21st, coming
promptly to the rescue, easily drove out the enterprising assailants,
with whom went as prisoners Lieutenant Bartlett and five of his
men, with fourteen muskets that had not been fired.(2)

As the saps in front of Bainbridge's and Duryea's batteries drew
every day nearer to the bastion and the priest-cap, the working
parties were harassed and began to be greatly delayed by the
unceasing fire of the Confederate sharp-shooters. Moreover, in
spite of the vigilance of the sharp-shooters in the trenches, their
adversaries had so much the advantage of ground that they were able
to render the passage of certain exposed points of the approaches
slow and hazardous. At first, cotton bales were used to protect
the head of the sap, but these the adventurous enemy set alight
with blazing arrows or by sallies of small parties under cover of
darkness. In the short night it was impossible to raise a pile of
sand-bags high enough to overlook the breastworks. Toward the end
of June this was changed in a single night by the skill and ingenuity
of Colonel Edward Prince, of the 7th Illinois cavalry.

Happening t