Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia, 1864–1865 397
Swampy woods near Petersburg. “The worst piece of woods I ever saw,” one Union
officer remarked.
discharge at least one hundred fifty rounds each in the course of the day. By
evening, their rifle barrels were foul; some men dismantled their weapons on
the spot to clean them. The regiment’s commander, Capt. Frederick E. Camp,
asked for relief. Rain fell through the night. Before dawn, the 7th USCI moved
forward to relieve the skirmishers. In twenty hours, the 29th Connecticut had
suffered eleven killed and sixty-nine wounded, more than the rest of the division
combined. 44
Lieutenant Califf commanded a company in the 7th USCI. “It was clear
and cold,” he noted in his diary, “with a keen wind from the S.E.
Long before we reached the line, we could hear the continual, crack, crack,
crack of the skirmishe[r]s. When we reached the line, by feeling our way
through the dripping undergrowth, the bullets began to whistle past, or crash
among the limbs above us. Before daylight we had our line established. . . .
When day broke the rebs opened a sharp fire with musketry. Within two hours
I had five men wounded & one killed. . . . The last man wounded was Isaac
Cooper, “K,” while lying in a place I had just quitted, at the reserve. The ball
struck him just below the small of the back—He rolled and screamed for a
moment & then became quiet. We were losing so many men that the order was
44 OR, ser. 1, vol. 42, pt. 1, pp. 149–50, 777, 779; Bacon to Dear Kate, 31 Oct 1864.