p.

and in the morning came a-
gain to the river and crossed
without opposition and came
only a short distance till
[underline]dark[/underline] again and then the
Fourth was sent to the ex-
treme front on Picuet and
passed a quiet night, though
the enemy were in our hearing
all night, and in the morn-
ing, saw a Battery planted in
front of us, about one half
mile from us on a level
plain and soon after sun-
rise the [Drape?], Solid shot &
Shells began to pour in up-
on us and soon we were order-
ed to deploy as Skirmishers &
under a terrible fire Infantry &
Artillery we advanced on the
open plain about 3/4 of a mile
with [underline]no[/underline] support & the last

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of the way in most as much
danger from our own guns be-
hind as those of the Rebs. be-
fore. One of our men, Derbon whom
Horace will remember, was one
of the first to fall & then with
a single line of men, and those
two or three paces apart we stood before
them till our powder gave out
& we were ordered to "about face".
Five of our men, were left on the
Field & we were sent back for
them. Two Derbon & Bruce have
since died; Sergt. McAllaster
was hit by a piece of Shell, on
the knee, which without mak-
ing any hole in his cloths,
wounded him severely, but not
[underline]dangerously[/underline]. Kent of Montpelier
had his foot taken off, above the
ankle. One of the Recuits had
a bullet through the hand.