General Sedgwick's Division was immediately withdrawn to the shelter of some woods where Dana's Brigade held the ground which protected the right of the Union army. There the regiment remained during the rest of the day, observant of what was going on but taking no active part in the terrible fight because they were not needed.
Malvern Hill was an excellent place for a battlefield. A large open space, rounded in the centre, made a good position for artillery. The men of the regiment had an excellent opportunity to observe all that transpired.
On the one side, the long line of gray, rushing with fixed bayonets up the slope with a momentum which, to an observer, would seem to have force enough to crush anything before it. On the other side was a line along the brow of a hill, in most places only two deep, with a slight reserve, watching the advance of this yelling mass of men in gray. They have not the excitement that comes with motion and the onward rush to sustain them. They must stand there and await the crash; there is no breastwork to conceal them; no fence to crouch behind; the open field is clear of any obstacle to retard the onward rush of the enemy,—nothing but this thin line with artillery posted between the regiments to stop them.
These men on the hill had been fighting by day and marching by night for seventy-two consecutive hours, while the enemy, knowing the ground, had the advantage of rest and sleep. The shells from the Union gunboats undoubtedly rendered aid by dropping among and scattering the Confederate reserves, but to those on the hill they were a menace as well, as there was the constant fear that one of the great missiles would drop among friends instead of foes. The rebels, referring to these great shells, said ‘When you'uns commenced to throw iron pots and half barrels at us, we'uns thought it time to git,’ and they did.
In the early evening, Lieutenant Dodge, of Company F, a sergeant and several men were in front on picket, and when
