During this time I have not been able to keep my book with me, and consequently I cannot give a detailed account of each day’s transactions, but will revive the whole as briefly as possible. We are still in the trenches where we have been ever since the battle of May 21st. We have shifted our position several times, but keep in the trenches. One can easily imagine our condition. Rolling in ditches of red clay, with no protection from rain or sun, and a continued series of working details and pickets. Thus it was that we passed the weary, monotonous hours of the long, long, days, nothing to read, nothing to see to vary the unchanging monotony. Nothing to do but work, with spade or shovel, or keep a sleepy watch of picket, until aroused from his lethargy by the loud reports of picket firing, he wakes and realizes his danger. Sleep is our only luxury and refuge from labor and this is coveted by all. Nearly every night we are aroused by our pickets or the enemy’s firing. They are in sixty yards of each other, and the least movement to the front or either side is the signal alarm. One morning our whole picket line advanced, and a heavy skirmish was the result. We captured the enemy’s rifle pits by a charge, and about two hundred prisoners with a good many fine patented Spencer’s Repeating Carbines1, but the enemy advanced in heavy form to retake the pits and our boys were reluctantly compelled to yield them up after a stout resistance. Colonel Dantzler2 of 22nd South Carolina Volunteers was killed in this charge. Our Regiment was nearly on the extreme right, and our pickets in advancing only the left met any Yankees. These they came upon cooking, completely surprising them. They killed 5 or 6 and took 2 or 3 prisoners, but had two men wounded in Company K, Black Davidson and Alex Lockhart. The right of the line where our company was advanced one mile and a half and found not a Yankee, but an awful rugged country. Since this row we have had some hot shellings, and the roar of the big guns around us, and the shrill shriek of the answering shells, formed for the time a grand, sublime, but, terrible panorama. Our fare is very rough. Corn bread and bacon, and that very scanty. But we endure cheerfully, and confidently hope the time is not far off when we can realize the scenes set forth in that enchanting song, “When this cruel war is over.” We have been in the trenches now twenty days without relief and there is no telling how much longer we will stay. Lee’s success is so far uninterrupted. No news form home. Mail irregular. Great excitement prevailed yesterday in Petersburg, caused by the enemy advancing on the city. It was a force of Yankee cavalry raiders, five to six thousand strong. They were resisted by the Petersburg militia who fought them manfully but were compelled to fall back before superior numbers. The Yankees followed and were almost entering the city when Wise’s3Brigade came up and drove them back, completely defeating them and saving the city. We received orders to be ready to move and expected to have gone, but we have not yet.
1 Spencer repeating rifle - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_repeating_rifle
2 Olin M. Dantzler
3 Brigadier General Henry A. Wise - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_A._Wise
