File:History of the Eighteenth New Hampshire Volunteers, 1864-5 (1904) (14576224317).jpg

Identifier: historyofeightee00live (find matches)
Title: History of the Eighteenth New Hampshire Volunteers, 1864-5
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Livermore, Thomas Leonard, 1844-1918
Subjects: United States. Army New Hampshire Infantry Regiment, 18th (1864-1865) United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865 Regimental histories
Publisher: Boston, The Fort Hill Press
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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B taken out for a charge.Captain Potter was to command. . . . Finalh LieutenantFarmer went around with us, but we were too late for anyservice. April 3. Our pickets advanced in the night and took theirline of works. Their troops had left. It was a severe trial of the men of Company H to put themin battle on the day after they were armed, and their goodconduct is most convincing evidence of their stanchness andcourage. The failure of the authorities to confer medals of honor onPrivates Boutwell and Camp contrasts strangely with thelater generous distribution of these medals, which continuesafter thirty-nine 3Tars. It is for deeds like theirs that theBritish Government confers the Victoria Cross. The experience of the Eighteenth in the fort and trenchesduring the seven days, March 27 to April 3, was a very tryingone for new soldiers. The main works, which were made ofheavy earth embankments revetted by logs, gave protectionagainst direct fire, but the fragments of shells bursting over-
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VORK TltBEr The Battle at Petersburg 65 head were sometimes deadly, while from the mortar shellswhich .were thrown over and dropped vertically behind theworks there was no protection outside the bomb proofs, theshelter of which could not always be taken. As has beenstated above, Fort Stedman was only about one hundredand fifty yards from the main line of the enemys works,and at this distance it was dangerous to expose a hand abovethe parapet. The pits or earthworks behind which thepickets kept watch were only fifty yards from the enemyspicket lines, and at this close range the men, during their tourof picket duty, had to lie close behind their shelters. Thesepicket pits or works could be approached in daylight onlyby the zigzag ditches leading to them from shelter in theirrear, which had been dug for that purpose. Without warn-ing, day and night, storms of shells and bullets flew over thelines, grazing the tops of the works and scattering fragmentsamong the men who were lying behind t

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