We marched the length of the regiment by the right flank, through the woods, then fronted and moved forward, with skirmishers deployed in advance.  The skirmishers soon became engaged.  Bullets flew amongst us.  We continued to advance until we reached the edge of the woods; the line had not yet fired a shot.

The rebels had cut down the timber in their front; as soon as we became visible they began throwing shells and grape-shot over the timber at our ranks.  We lay down and took the fire and the rain.  We lay there for something like two hours; then we moved to the rear,—­only our regiment, I think,—­fronted again, and marched to the right for perhaps a mile through the woods.  Willis said that we were seeking any enemy that might be in the woods; but he aroused no interest; nobody either approved or seemed to doubt Willis’s interpretation of the movement; we did not know what the generals were doing with us, and we were tired and sleepy and hungry and wet.

By twelve o’clock we had marched back to our former position near the felled timber.  Rain continued to fall, and the hostile batteries to fire upon each other.  Wounded men were carried to the rear.  I noticed that our company seemed small; perhaps a few had been wounded; certainly many had fallen out of ranks, unable longer to endure.

About the middle of the afternoon we were moved again, this time through the woods to the left.  As we marched, we could hear the roar of musketry ahead of us, and straggling men could be seen running in every direction except one.  We moved on in line, without skirmishers.  The straggling men increased in numbers, and many wounded went past us, the ambulance corps working busily here in the dense wet forest.  The yells of the rebels were plainly heard, and all eyes were strained to catch sight of what was already but too well known.  Every moment was an hour.

Suddenly from our front came a roar and a crash, and our line staggered to a dead halt, every man firing and loading as fast as he could—­firing at a line of smoke ahead of us.  Great shouts could be heard in the smoke; occasionally, in some momentary diminution in our own strife, there could be faintly heard the noise of battle to our right, far and near to our right.

Men were falling fast.  All at once I heard Willis roar, “Fire to the left, men! fire to the left!” A great turmoil ensued; officers cried, “They are our men!” Willis again, shouted:  “Fire on that line, men!  They are rebels!  They are rebels!” and he succeeded in convincing most of us that he was right.  Then the cry rose:  “We are flanked!” “Look out!” “Flanked!” “Here they come!” and then the whole crowd of us were running with all our legs.  I reached a road that ran across the line of my flight; it was full of everything:  troops in good order, stragglers breaking through them, wounded lying down, dead flat on their backs, artillery horses in their traces, ambulances.