Service With the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers

              179
leventh army corps. With swifter steps we now pressed on up the hill, and, passing in through the ranks open to receive us, fficers and men threw themselves in a state of almost perfect exhaustion on the green grass and the graves of the cemetery. The condition of affairs on Cemetery Hill at this time has been a subject of discussion. If fresh troops had attacked us then, we unquestionably would have fared badly. The troops were scat¬ tered over the hill in much disorder, while a .stream of stragglers and wounded men pushed along the Baltimore Turnpike toward the rear. But this perilous condition of affairs was of short duration. There was no appearance of panic on the Cemetery Hill. After a short breathing spell my men again promptly responded to the order to "fall in." Lieutenant Rogers brought us orders 'from General Wadsworth, to join our own brigade, which had been sent to occupy Culp's Hill.* As we marched toward the hill our regimental wagon joined us. In the wagon were a dozen spades and shovels. Taking our place on the right of the line of the brigade, I ordered the regiment to in¬ trench. The men worked with great energy. A man would dig with all his strength till out of breath, when another would seize the spade and push on the work. There were no orders to construct these breastworks, but the situation plainly dictated their necessity. The men now lay down to rest after the arduous labors of this great and terrible day. Sad and solemn reflections possessed, at least, the writer of these papers. Our dead lay unburied and beyond our sight or reach. Our wounded were in the hands of the enemy. Our bravest and best were numbered with them. Of eighteen hundred men who marched with the splendid brigade in the morning, but seven hundred were here. More than one thousand men had been shot. There was to us a terrible reality in the figures which represent our loss. We had been driven, also, by the enemy, and the shadow of defeat seemed to be hanging over us. But that afternoon, under the burning sun and through the stifling clouds of dust, the Army of the "otomac had marched to the sound of our cannon.    We had lost
juolonel W. W. Robinson, of the seventh Wisconsin regiment, "¦"luand of tl   ¦"        " '   '  " - --   ^^- -    '
' wounded.
jjg~'*^^d of the brigade, having succeeded General Meredith, who had
iis.