This evening at about five o’clock the enemy commenced massing in our front. At first they threw out a skirmish line, but our line, under Major Betgil of 18th, charged them and ran them back. They then displayed a line a little to our right and drove in our pickets, shortly after this they threw a line of battle in the edge of a piece of woods, and making them lie down massed four lines behind them. Then they deployed another skirmish line and advanced it forward. It was at this juncture that we lost our much lamented company commander, Lieutenant David I. Logan. He ordered the men to keep down their heads for the enemy were sharpshooting fast, and in his zeal for the men, exposed himself when a stray ball struck him square in the forehead killing him instantly. He never groaned, but was dead in a minute. It threw a gloom over every countenance and cast a damper over the whole company. His bloody corpse was borne away by our ambulance men, which was the last of our lamented Lieutenant. He was an officer and a gentleman, a man of brilliant intellect, who, by his kind heart and gentle ways, had attached himself to every one of us. I can say no more, but his death was a shock so unexpected as to almost overcome my discretion. He is gone, and I trust is with his God in Heaven. Shortly after he had been borne off, the enemy began to make furious demonstrations in our front. In a few moments their front line appeared and came forward at a double quick, followed by four other lines, seemingly bent on taking our lines, but they did not count the cost. “Fire” came the word, and our whole line was a sheet of flame. The Yankees in our line began to dwindle down and before they had got in 100 yards of our works, we turned their tune, for they broke and fled in utter dismay, followed by the shouts and bullets of our victorious boys. Every now and then after the main body had reached the woods a solitary Yankee would rise and make for the woods, followed by shouts of laughter from our boys. Again the Yankee officers attempted to renew the charge, acting, I must say, with considerable bravery, but forming a line as they did, still they could not prevail on the Yanks to charge us again, who, after two or three more futile attempts, desisted altogether. We had one man in our company wounded by his own gun, E.H. Bridges, finger an thumb shot off. This was our only casualty, while many a Yankee bit the dust in our front. I do not know the number of the enemy killed or wounded. Dark closed in silently but in the night the enemy made another charge on our left, but as usual were repulsed. The following day was passed in rest, except occasional shelling and sharpshooting. This night we were relieved by Field’s Division and went back to the rear to rest and clean up for a few days. During this time, I was elected Brevet Second Lieutenant in our company. We lived remarkably well on vegetables that we could procure at reduced prices. We stayed back here five days when we again went into the trenches. But in the meantime we had been engaged in a flank movement under General Mahone1 succeeded in capturing about 3,000 prisoners, two lines of breastworks and eight pieces of artillery, with several stand of colors and small arms. We went out in front of our breastworks and lay in supporting distance of Mahone all night, until about daybreak, when we reached our works perfectly satisfied. On the following day we went out there again, but this time to throw up breastworks, which we did, and with the usual luck of our brigade, marched away at dark, coming back to our old lines, took position about the center of the line, where we found the Yankee line of works in about 200 yards of ours, and a continual sharpshooting was going on all the time, we were in a stone’s throw of one another, and thus we have been now for 21 days. We lie here day after day, sharpshooting with the enemy. If you stuck your head above the breastworks a minute a dozen balls would penetrate it and we lost several men, killed or wounded, in the regiment. We had no shelter from the sun, rolling in the clay of the ditches, we were as dirty as hogs, and awfully lousy. Oh ye patterns of nicety. Oh ye Broadway Dandies. Oh Ye Brussels Carpet Patriots, what do ye think of this? Think of a great louse, preying with greedy touch on your fastidious limbs, think of this and ask yourselves if you could be a soldier and abandon your bandbox proclivities for love of country.
We stayed in these work now 17 days without relief, worn out, tired, dirty and sleepy. During this time we had one false alarm and a great deal of useless firing and nothing else of importance, tho we kept constantly on the lookout for mortar shells which was dropped among us every now and then, sometimes killing and wounding several. During this time we had F. Moore wounded in the arm, J.J. Clark killed by a sharpshooter and J.J. Garoin wounded dangerously in the mouth. We were then relieved for two days, but are now in the works again, when I write this, July 14th, 1864.
1 William Mahone - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mahone
