Washington Mackey Ives, 4th Florida Infantry, Preston's brigade, Breckinridge's division
The Florida Genealogist, Vol. 8, No. 4, Summer 1985, pages 98ff; courtesy Kenneth and Helen Ives
“At (1:30) p.m. the … roar of musketry is as regular and quick as touching the two lowest keys on the piano. We stood about 1/2 an hour listening when our aide rode up to Gen. Preston. … We were ordered to load. … (About 2:30) p.m. … we double quicked back through the field and waded Stone River, wetting us up to our knees, and formed in line of battle just on the west side of the creek, or river.
“We had thrown off our blankets … before crossing. … At the creek, ambulances were crossing with the wounded; one man walking with his arm shot off enquired what (regiment) … as our beautiful flag passed him, and being told the 4th Fla. said, ‘You’ll do it up right; pay them for my arm.’ A little soldier … was in one of the ambulances and appeared to be hit in four or five places. His back, I think, was broken, but he bore it like a man, except as the wagon would jolt he’d groan.
“As we formed in line of battle there was a Confederate, the first dead man I had yet seen, lying on his back with a cannon ball hole though his breast I could stick my head in. …
The 4th had to pass through a picket fence, and in doing so we got our ranks broken and in forming, the 60th (North Carolina) … crowded us so that we were all crowded out of place. And then 9 (companies) of the 60th turned and ran like sheep, leaving us under the hottest kind of fire from sharpshooters in front and … of cannon about 1/2 mile distant on our right. We were halted under this fire and ordered to fire in the cedar thicket in front, and while we were driving the Yankee sharpshooters out of the wood the (Yankee) batteries got our range and then the men began to drop. … John Hacker falls about a file to my left, and John McKinney … had his throat cut at my right side. He fell on my feet and blood splattered in a stream as large as my two forefingers. Poor fellow, he could not speak, though he grabbed at the wound and tried to raise up. Phil Coates got shot through the right thigh. Elijah Linch got his head skinned by a ball. Little Billy Hinson got shot under the shoulders, sideways. We were then ordered into the thicket. … The trees and limbs were falling thick, but on we went. The dead Yankees lay thick in the woods. We kept in the cedars and went on until we got to the edge or about 250 (yards) … from where we entered, and then we could see the (Yankee) line of Battle 1,000 (yards north) … of us. The Confederate batteries now began to fire on the yankees’ batteries, which drew their fire from us, and thus things continued til dark when we were ordered back about 50 yards and broke ranks to sleep on arms, but it was very little sleeping that any of us did for I like to have died of the cold. My teeth chattered all night. We did not have our blankets, and the ground was hard and frozen.
“At daylight … Gen. Preston marched us deeper into the cedars so we could build small fires and be warm. … The Yankees threw a great many shells at us, one cut Lt. Harris’ … haversack and went through his coat; it wounded two men in Miot’s Co. … We lay in this thicket all day among the dead and dying Yankees. I slept at night a little, for Col. Bowen got our blankets for us.”
Jan. 2, 1863 (Breckinridge’s charge)
“Heaps of unburied dead lay in the cornfields. We kept on through the fields and woods until we came to the east of the Yankees, having been to the southwest of them. We formed line of battle in an old field. …
“The nearest the (Yankees) … came to getting me was shooting a hole in my pants and cutting hair off my right temple. I know a peck of balls passed in less than a yard of me. … The man in front of me got slightly wounded (and) … the one on my right mortally and the one on my left killed. I did not feel any different while under fire than I do at any kind of work. I took 20 deliberate shots, picking my man every time, and one time I saw the man fall, but the others I could not see on account of my smoke. My gun kept choking.”
The Florida Genealogist, Vol. 8, No. 4, Summer 1985, pages 98ff; courtesy Kenneth and Helen Ives
“At (1:30) p.m. the … roar of musketry is as regular and quick as touching the two lowest keys on the piano. We stood about 1/2 an hour listening when our aide rode up to Gen. Preston. … We were ordered to load. … (About 2:30) p.m. … we double quicked back through the field and waded Stone River, wetting us up to our knees, and formed in line of battle just on the west side of the creek, or river.
“We had thrown off our blankets … before crossing. … At the creek, ambulances were crossing with the wounded; one man walking with his arm shot off enquired what (regiment) … as our beautiful flag passed him, and being told the 4th Fla. said, ‘You’ll do it up right; pay them for my arm.’ A little soldier … was in one of the ambulances and appeared to be hit in four or five places. His back, I think, was broken, but he bore it like a man, except as the wagon would jolt he’d groan.
“As we formed in line of battle there was a Confederate, the first dead man I had yet seen, lying on his back with a cannon ball hole though his breast I could stick my head in. …
The 4th had to pass through a picket fence, and in doing so we got our ranks broken and in forming, the 60th (North Carolina) … crowded us so that we were all crowded out of place. And then 9 (companies) of the 60th turned and ran like sheep, leaving us under the hottest kind of fire from sharpshooters in front and … of cannon about 1/2 mile distant on our right. We were halted under this fire and ordered to fire in the cedar thicket in front, and while we were driving the Yankee sharpshooters out of the wood the (Yankee) batteries got our range and then the men began to drop. … John Hacker falls about a file to my left, and John McKinney … had his throat cut at my right side. He fell on my feet and blood splattered in a stream as large as my two forefingers. Poor fellow, he could not speak, though he grabbed at the wound and tried to raise up. Phil Coates got shot through the right thigh. Elijah Linch got his head skinned by a ball. Little Billy Hinson got shot under the shoulders, sideways. We were then ordered into the thicket. … The trees and limbs were falling thick, but on we went. The dead Yankees lay thick in the woods. We kept in the cedars and went on until we got to the edge or about 250 (yards) … from where we entered, and then we could see the (Yankee) line of Battle 1,000 (yards north) … of us. The Confederate batteries now began to fire on the yankees’ batteries, which drew their fire from us, and thus things continued til dark when we were ordered back about 50 yards and broke ranks to sleep on arms, but it was very little sleeping that any of us did for I like to have died of the cold. My teeth chattered all night. We did not have our blankets, and the ground was hard and frozen.
“At daylight … Gen. Preston marched us deeper into the cedars so we could build small fires and be warm. … The Yankees threw a great many shells at us, one cut Lt. Harris’ … haversack and went through his coat; it wounded two men in Miot’s Co. … We lay in this thicket all day among the dead and dying Yankees. I slept at night a little, for Col. Bowen got our blankets for us.”
Jan. 2, 1863 (Breckinridge’s charge)
“Heaps of unburied dead lay in the cornfields. We kept on through the fields and woods until we came to the east of the Yankees, having been to the southwest of them. We formed line of battle in an old field. …
“The nearest the (Yankees) … came to getting me was shooting a hole in my pants and cutting hair off my right temple. I know a peck of balls passed in less than a yard of me. … The man in front of me got slightly wounded (and) … the one on my right mortally and the one on my left killed. I did not feel any different while under fire than I do at any kind of work. I took 20 deliberate shots, picking my man every time, and one time I saw the man fall, but the others I could not see on account of my smoke. My gun kept choking.”