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

262 "t^nk Maine bUgLK.
A signal station was in a tall tree inside of the fort, and the
operators were driven out of it twice while we were there by
shots from the picket lines. They fortified the tree as well as
possible, but even then it was too warm for them at times. A
new negro regiment, moving down the lines, marched into the
Jerusalem Road a short distance to the rear of Fort Hell
and in front of Davis. As they came in sight of Fort Mahone
it opened on them with shell, wounding a few of them. They
were quickly demoralized and made a run for the rear, throwing
away guns and knapsacks, which were quickly gathered in by
the infantry and our boys. One of the negroes, who was slightly
wounded in the ankle by a piece of shell was making a great
fuss over it when one of the re-enlisted veterans of a Jersey
regiment said, " Oh, shut up; Fd give a hundred dollars for
that in a minute."
We moved from this place (October 22d, and went around to
the right, two guns going into Fort McGilvery and two into
Battery No. 9. Fort McGilvery was about a half-mile from the
Appomattox river, the extreme right of our lines fronting
Petersburg. This fort was named for our former captain, who,
at the time of his death was chief of artillery in the Tentii
Corps. I was not stationed in Fort McGilvery but visited there
often. They received no infantry fire but a plenty of mortar
and other artillery fire and it was rather a disagreeable place at
times as they had no bomb proofs. Battery No. 9 was about
two hundred yards to the left of Fort McGilvery and about five
hundred to the right of Fort Steadman. It was in an angle of
the line and projected beyond the main line, so that the i>icket
lines on each side of it did not connect in front except by
videttes on very dark nights. It was feared that the enemy
would mine this battery, and a countermine was sunk running
under it in which an infantry guard was kept all of the time, a
ramrod was driven into the ground and one of them would put
his car to it occasionally, while another had a small hole fillet!
with water, which he would measure. No attempt however
was ever made to mine it, to my knowledge, although we had