SOLDIER 37 



at noon into Grand Lake. Here the Arizona got stuck, 

 and after vainly trying for two or three hours to get her 

 off, we pushed ahead and about sundown came to an an- 

 chorage in a pretty little bay. But after sending a party 

 ashore to reconnoitre, we discovered it was the wrong place, 

 and General Grover signaled to heave anchor and stand 

 off and on. This morning at daybreak we ran in, surprising 

 the enemies' pickets, and a brisk skirmishing has been 

 going on. We are landing under the cover of the Calhoun, 

 which is shelling the woods. Our object I suppose is to cut 

 off the retreat of the rebels, which Emory's and Sherman's 

 division crossed Berwick Bay to attack. 



As he wrote these lines he probably little thought what 

 a day might bring forth, and he could not have realized 

 the scene if he had thought. The next morning, April 12, 

 came the hard-fought battle of Irish Bend. In the evening 

 he writes to all near and dear to him: 



MY DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, Through the mercy 

 of God, I am spared to write you of my safety. We have 

 had a terrible battle and the 25th has suffered severely. 

 For an hour and a half, we were under the hottest fire en- 

 tirely unsupported; then the rebs succeeded in flanking 

 us and we had to fall back a short distance, but the tune 

 soon changed and the rebs retreated. We went into battle 

 with 380 men and lost 73 wounded, 10 killed and 14 miss- 

 ing. Our brigade, was about the only one engaged, and we 

 lost over 300 men killed, wounded and missing. 1 Colonel 



1 In the official returns the 25th Conn, is reported to have two officers 

 killed and seven wounded, seven enlisted men killed, seventy-two wounded 

 and ten missing. 15 W. R. p. 319. 



