lection of which causes a shudder, even after the flight

of years.

The first glimmer of daylight found the line of battle ready to advance; but no trace of the enemy could be discovered. Company D, the Color Guard, and Pioneers were formed as a reserve under charge of the Adjutant, and ordered to support the centre and keep well up to the skirmish line in the advance. At half-past eight o'clock the order was given "Forward! Guide Left!" The dense undergrowth rendered it very difficult to maintain a good line, as the regiment covered considerable ground. After advancing about three hundred yards we reached a cornfield about one hundred yards wide, with woods beyond. We moved across this field and halted in the edge of the forest, and connected our left with the right of the First Division. We were then ordered to build a line of breastworks. We had just completed a fine line of works, and were eating our dinner of roasted corn, gathered from the cornfield, when we were ordered to the left to reinforce that portion of the line, as an attack was anticipated. We accordingly moved a distance of about a hundred yards to the left, to that portion of the line which had been held by the Second New York Rifles, which had moved further down. Although they had occupied the position two hours, not a tree had been cut, and no protection whatever had been secured. Our men went to work with a will and soon had a good line of breast works. We had just nicely settled down for the second time when the Adjutant-General came up at a gallop to order the regiment to extend to the right, as the enemy was threatening the extreme right, and it had been found necessary to extend in that direction. We moved back to the first line of breast works we had built, not a little angry at being obliged to build intrenchments for the Second New York.

The portion of line we now occupied was the scene of the fearful struggle the previous day, when the charging enemy, under Mahone, encountered the advance of our troops under

General Willcox. Both lines were charging and met at short range, when a desperate fight ensued, in which the enemy was obliged to retire, His dead lay thickly all about us, and the ground bore evidence of the heavy loss sustained by the enemy at this point.

The men were under arms all the afternoon, expecting an attack. There was sharp musketry both on our right and left, but no unusual disturbance along our front. During the evening Lieutenant-Colonel Draper was temporarily in command of the brigade, in consequence of the absence of Colonel Bliss. At nightfall Captain Hodgkins, acting Adjutant, was detailed upon the staff of General Ferrero, and Lieutenant Haskell, of Company B, was assigned to duty as Adjutant and entered at once upon this service. The tri-monthly report of this date showed the effective strength to be thirteen commissioned officers and one hundred and seventy-six enlisted men; total, one hundred and eighty-nine, with four commissioned officers and ninety-five enlisted men on extra or special duty with the corps.

The movement for the possession of the Weldon Railroad, although attended with heavy losses, had thus far been successful. General Warren's line was now firmly across the railroad, and the position strongly fortified. Our corps was on his right flank, covering much ground between him and the main line of works; a large cavalry force guarded the flanks, and artillery had been put in position to repel any attack the enemy might be disposed to make. It was felt that another attempt would be made by the rebels to drive out or break our line. The night shut in cold, dark, and rainy. The men were under arms, prepared for any emergency.

Early the next morning there were indications of another attack, and the enemy soon renewed his efforts to regain the railroad. A heavy cannonading from thirty pieces of artillery, which crossed their fire over Warren's position, was kept up for an hour, when a desperate assault was made by Hay

good's South Carolina brigade, on the extreme left, with the intention of turning that flank while a heavy attack was made in front. The charge was made with great vigor, but was handsomely repulsed, with heavy loss in killed and wounded. Five hundred prisoners and three battle-flags were captured, with comparatively little loss to the Fifth Corps. The attempt was not renewed, but the enemy retired to his works, and our line was so strengthened as to render any further attack a matter of little probability.

CHAPTER XXII.

IN THE PINES.

THE excitement and activity caused by the successful operations at the Weldon Railroad subsided in a great degree by the 22d, the enemy having abandoned the futile task of striving to regain his lost ground, and we were left in quiet and complete possession of this important line of communication. The regiment was leisurely employed during the day in strengthening the intrenchments, and skirmishers were advanced for half a mile or more into the wooded swamp in its front, but without developing the rebel position.

On the 23d the whole division line was drawn back a short distance, and works of a more permanent character than those first thrown up were begun.

-

The camp sheltered by these defences became known as that "In the Pines," and deserves more than passing notice. The Ninth Corps now held that part of the line which extended from the right of the Fifth Corps on the Weldon Railroad to the left of the Second Corps, near the Jerusalem Plank road, a distance of about four miles. At the point occupied by the regiment the line ran along the edge of a belt of pine timber fronting an open field of varying width, which separated it from a deep, swampy forest, the trees in the border of which were felled at random, forming with their prostrate trunks and interlacing branches that formidable barrier known as a "slashing." Through this maze were narrow winding paths for the passage of the pickets who were posted in the standing timber beyond. The breastworks were higher than was customary, the earth being thrown up from

the front, leaving a ditch, just outside of which was planted a bristling abatis. Well-built earthworks for artillery were thrown up at available points, the open ground in front of the regiment being swept by an enfilading fire from two. An observer standing upon the works in front of the tents of the Thirty-sixth commanded a far-reaching view of the defences, which, as they stretched away on either hand until hidden by the trees, presented one of the best specimens of entrenchment to be seen on that wonderful line, which extended for more than thirty miles, and which, with the opposing works of the enemy, nearly as long, made the greatest achievement in field fortification the world ever saw.

This position was held by the regiment from August 23d until September 25th; and relieved from the harassing duty in the trenches to which we had been so long subjected, and confident in the security of our defences, we joyfully improved a period of needed and grateful rest.

The regimental camp was laid out in an orderly manner, the absence of underbrush and large size of the pine growth giving it the appearance of a picnic grove, and was in striking contrast to the dusty and sun-scorched quarters it had frequently been our lot to occupy.

The weather, although cool at times, was generally delightful, and the duties were light. Beyond the regular details for picket and police, and an occasional bloodless reconnoissance, there was little call for service, and the men at their leisure washed and mended their war-worn garments, and dealt out long-deferred vengeance to predatory vermin; guns were cleaned, and brasses polished; barbers' chairs of marvellous construction, attended by thrifty veterans, were well patronized; long-absent sutlers returned with their wagons groaning beneath heavy burdens; in short, we were once more in camp."

ee

The terrible losses sustained by the Ninth Corps during the bloody campaign of the summer had sadly thinned its once crowded ranks. Regiments, that in April marched from