“Of course I grieved for the loss of men and officers, but I had come to feel like a brother towards Strahan, and, fatigued as I was, solicitude on his account kept me awake for hours.  The battle was still raging on our extreme right, and I fell asleep before the ominous sounds ceased.

“Waking with the dawn, I felt so much better and stronger that I took a hasty cup of coffee, and then started toward the spot where I had seen Strahan fall, in the hope of reaching it.  The surgeon had ordered that I should be relieved from duty, and told me to keep quiet.  This was impossible with my friend’s fate in such uncertainty.  I soon found that the enemy occupied the ground on which we had fought, and that to go beyond a certain point would be death or captivity.  Therefore I returned, the surgeon amputated my finger, and then I rested with the regiment several hours.  With the dawn, heavy fighting began again on the extreme right, but we knew at the time little of its character or object.

“After an early dinner I became restless and went to our corps-hospitals to look after such of the wounded of my company as had been carried thither.  It was situated in a grove not far away.  I will not describe the scenes witnessed there, for it would only give you useless pain.  The surgeons had been at work all the night and morning around the amputation tables, and our doctor and chaplain had done about all that could be accomplished for our poor fellows.  There were hundreds of men lying on the ground, many of whom were in the agonies of death even as I passed.

“I again went back to see if there had been any change in our front which would enable me to reach Strahan.  This still being impossible, I continued along our lines to the right at a slow pace, that I might gain some idea of our position and prospects.  My hope now of reaching Strahan lay in our defeating Lee and gaining the field.  Therefore I had a double motive to be intensely interested in all I saw.  Since nine in the morning a strange silence had settled on the field, but after yesterday’s experience it raised no delusive hopes.  With the aid of a small field-glass that I carried, I could see the enemy’s batteries, and catch glimpses of their half-concealed infantry, which were moving about in a way that indicated active preparation for something.  Our officers had also made the most of this respite, and there had been a continuous shifting of troops, strengthening of lines, and placing of artillery in position since the dawn.  Now, however, the quiet was wonderful, in view of the vast bodies of men which were hi deadly array.  Even the spiteful picket-firing had ceased.

“I had barely reached a high point, a little in the rear of the Second Corps, commanded by General Hancock, when I saw evidences of excitement and interest around me.  Eyes and field-glasses were directed towards the enemy’s lines nearly opposite.  Springing on a rock near me, I turned my glass in the same direction, and saw that Lee was massing his artillery along the edge of the woods on the ridge opposite.  The post of observation was a good one, and I determined to maintain it.  The rock promised shelter when the iron tempest should begin.