the West with picks and shovels
instead of rifles and cannon, but here it looked as if he intended
to use both to an advantage. As soon as he had his lines located, he
opened a fusilade upon Petersburg, throwing shells into the city from
his long-ranged guns, without intermission. It was in the immediate
front of the right of the brigade and the battery on the hill that
the enemy's mine was laid that occasioned the "Battle of the Crater"
a month afterwards. Before we had finished our works, several night
assaults were made upon us, notably the one up the ravine that
separated the Second and Third on the night of the 21st of June. It
was easily repulsed, however, with little loss on our side, the enemy
firing too high. What annoyed the soldiers more than anything else was
the continual dropping of shells in our works or behind them. We could
hear the report of the mortars, and by watching overhead we could see
the shell descending, and no one could tell exactly where it was going
to strike and no chance for dodging. As every old soldier knows, card
playing was the national vice, if vice it could be called, and almost
all participated in it, but mostly for amusement, as the soldiers
scarcely ever had money to hazard at cards. While a quartet was
indulging in this pastime in the trenches, some one yelled, "Lookout,
there comes a shell!" Looking up the disciples of the "Ten Spots" saw
a shell coming down right over their heads. Nothing could be done but
to stretch themselves at full length and await developments. They were
not long in suspense, for the shell dropped right upon the oilcloth on
which they had been playing. There it lay sizzling and spluttering as
the fuse burned lower and lower, the men holding their breath all the
while, the other troops scattering right and left. The thing could not
last; the tension broke, when one of the card-players seized the shell
in his hands and threw it out of the works; just before exploding. It
was the belief in the brigade that those men did not play cards again
for more than thirty days.

Another annoyance was the enemy's sharpshooters, armed with
globe-sighted rifles. These guns had a telescope on top of the barrel,
and objects at a distance could be distinctly seen. Brush screened
their rifle pits, and while they could see plainly any object above
our works, we could not see them. A head uncautiously raised above the
line, would be sure to get a bullet in or near it.

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