Post by Melissa on Aug 11, 2004 18:39:21 GMT -5
"Rufus R. Dawes, later a brevet brigadier, was in the army led by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker in September 1862. They crossed Antietam Creek shortly after daybreak on the 17th, and were waned that they were in open range of Confederate batteries.
Hurriedly they began to change directions, said Dawes, "When Whiz-z-z! bang! burst a shell over our heads; then another; then a percussion shell struck and exploded in the very center of the moving mass of men. It killed two men and wounded eleven. It tore off Captain David K. Noyes's foot and cut off both arms of a man in his company."
Describing the beginning of the battle of Antietam, he said, "Men and officers of New York and Wisconsin are fused into a common mass, in the frantic struggle to shoot fast. Everybody tears cartridges, loads, passes guns, or shoots. Men are falling in their places or running back into the corn."
"Men are loading and firing with demoniacal fury and shouting and laughing hysterically. A long, steady line of gray comes sweeping down through the woods. They fire. It is like a scythe running through our line. It is a race for life that each man runs for the cornfield."
I am not related to Rufus. I am just passing on this information, which comes from a book titled "Civil War Curiosities" by Webb Garrison. 1994.
Hurriedly they began to change directions, said Dawes, "When Whiz-z-z! bang! burst a shell over our heads; then another; then a percussion shell struck and exploded in the very center of the moving mass of men. It killed two men and wounded eleven. It tore off Captain David K. Noyes's foot and cut off both arms of a man in his company."
Describing the beginning of the battle of Antietam, he said, "Men and officers of New York and Wisconsin are fused into a common mass, in the frantic struggle to shoot fast. Everybody tears cartridges, loads, passes guns, or shoots. Men are falling in their places or running back into the corn."
"Men are loading and firing with demoniacal fury and shouting and laughing hysterically. A long, steady line of gray comes sweeping down through the woods. They fire. It is like a scythe running through our line. It is a race for life that each man runs for the cornfield."
I am not related to Rufus. I am just passing on this information, which comes from a book titled "Civil War Curiosities" by Webb Garrison. 1994.