The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

238 THE MAINE BUGLE.
though he had not spoken the words aloud :
" Now, my fine
sons of Maine, you are about to receive the baptism of fire.
Behave nobly. I am proud of you. We shall soon know what
stuff you are made of."
VVe did not march far before we were ordered to mass in the
woods, near the river, where we were forced all day to inhale
the breath of our batteries, which were trying to convince Lee's
soldiers of their inhospitality. In the twilight we again took
up our beds and walked two or three miles up the river, where
we halted for the night, and made ourselves as comfortable as
the fortunes of war would allow. Next morning " peas on a
trencher" was only in name; a dish of coffee and some hard-
tack constituted our morning meal, and then we " fell in " to
form a part of the column which was to operate on the left.
Almost before we were aware of being so near the Confederate
front, it was plunging shells in our line. How they did sing
their devilish songs; how they tore up the earth before us and
flung it in our very faces. It was like stirring up a gigantic
hornet's nest, and the air seemed full of huge infuriated insects.
General Berry now rode rapidly along the line, and seeing that
the regiment, which had not yet been ordered to advance, was
unnecessarily exposed by its gaping with wonder at the strange
sights and sounds, cried out in a loud stern voice, such as an
anxious parent would to his imprudent boys, " Lie down, every
one of you, or I'll skin you alive." This order we had never
seen in the manual of tactics, but it struck us forcibly as a good
thing to do, and down we went to the ground.
Though the general afterward must have, often, been seen
and felt and heard, he does not again appear in the writer's
memory till the next spring, 1863. He had received the
appointment of major general, and been assigned to the command
of the second division of the Third Corps. Much
enthusiasm then prevailed throughout the army for General
I looker, and General Berry evidently was one of his most san-
guine adherents. On a beautiful ^Sunday afternoon he visited
the regimental camji, and the boys were turned out to receive