56 HENRY HELL GOODELL 



the soldiers these days." To which he replied, "The sol- 

 diers have no time and no material to write with and are on 

 duty the whole time." The truth is, the siege was being 

 pressed with the utmost vigor. Goodell entered into the 

 spirit of the time, and we are told that, when his regiment 

 was not employed, he would ask to be allowed to join some 

 company where he had friends, and was once seen return- 

 ing covered with blood ; aid was sent out to him, but it was 

 found to be only an attack of the nose-bleed. 



I left off in my last with the unsuccessful charges made 

 by our regiment and the 159th on the 27th. About 10 

 o'clock that night we silently withdrew, bringing away all 

 the wounded we could reach, but there were some poor 

 fellows lying up under the breastworks it was impossible 

 to reach. Every time we tried to get to them the rebs would 

 fire on us. We threw them canteens of water and the in- 

 human rebs fired on them when they tried to reach them. 

 We marched back and lay on the battle-field of the pre- 

 ceding day among wounded and dead men. 



May 28, at 4 A.M., we marched back into the woods, 

 and lay in support of a battery. It was very trying, for the 

 rebs had a perfect range, and five or six times a day they 

 would throw those immense eleven-inch shells right over 

 into our midst. We could hear them coming for several 

 seconds, and we lay flat behind trees. Luckily none were 

 hurt, though we had some very narrow escapes. There was 

 a cessation of hostilities all day to bury the dead. 



At 7 P.M. the enemy made a fierce onslaught on the 

 right, but were driven back with heavy loss. We fell into 

 our places, expecting momentarily to be called into action, 



