[The following is from the Civil War diary of Samuel Clear, a Union soldier.]
Friday, March 31st – Battle for the White Oak Road or Five Forks
[…]
Seven killed and Twenty three wounded in ten minutes was the list of casualties in our Regiment. We got the wounded over and back to the rear somehow safely I do not know hardly how. I have command of the Company and was busy getting them into line again. The regiment was formed again, also all the regiments of the Division, then we got the word forward Charge, double quick and over we go again.
This time there is no repulse but a heavy fire is poured into us and away we go over our dead and wounded into the and over the Rebel dead and wounded. The rebs fell back slowly disputing every inch of ground, but finally we got them on the fast line and pushed them two miles as near as I could tell. All this time our boys was falling fast and so was the Johnnies. The woods was full of the ghastly Corpses of the dead, and the shrieks of the wounded and dying mingled with the crack of the musket and rumble of the artillery was calculated to impress the whole upon the mind so indelibly that it would last as long as life continued.
As I was running past a wounded rebel he caught me by the Pant leg and held me so tight I had to beat his hand loose with my gun. He wanted me to help him off the field. On we went and such cheering as the Old Irish Brigade can only do. We drove them beyond the place from which they had drove the 3rd Division of the 5th Corps. So we had pitched in and finished the work they had commenced at midnight.
All this time both sides was cheering as if charging one another on right, left and front. And this ended March 31st and the Battle for the White Oak Road or Five Forks. There seems to be a great determination throughout all the army to end the war as soon as possible. We have become used to toughing it and the boys does not seem to care.
Source:
Chisholm, Daniel, et al. “Diary.” The Civil War Notebook of Daniel Chisholm: A Chronicle of Daily Life in the Union Army, 1864-1865. Ballantine Books, 1990. 72-3. Print.
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