21

19 carnage was simply frightful
The second assault was made three days
later and was equally disastrous, Some
of the Infantry literally carried a piece belonging
to the 17th Ohio Battery to within a few feet of
one of [the] a bastions and more compelled
to leave it Two days later after an account of
the intolerable stench of the decomposing
bodies in the space between the [bases?]
a truce was allowed More than a thousand
dead were removed from our front alone, disfigured
and swollen beyond recognition.
The seige followed, fighting, digging and
mining were our constant occupations
until July 4th The troops immediately
opposing each other reached an understanding
that firing should cease at sundown. The
first intimation I had of the agreement,
was about a week previous to the
surrender Going out one evening, into
the trences [trenches] with a fatigue party, a shot was
fired some [a short] distance to the left of us. The officer
commanding our men was extremely indignant
and [emphatically] expressed his feelings in
good round English, a voice apologetically
responded "That shot wasn't fired by my
men." The officer thereupon got out of the
ditch followed by his men. The Engineer and