[98] and left were equally successful. The enemy, who belonged to the corps of A. P. Hill, fell back, leaving their dead and wounded on the ground, and our men, following them up, seized five guns and brought them off. Two of them, the first that were taken, were secured by a company of Abbott's command.
Abbott was present with his regiment at Mine Run, at the close of November in the same year. His regiment, deployed as skirmishers, and covering the front of the whole division, there drove in the enemy's line of skirmishers so rapidly that they did not stop to reload after their first fire. The following morning his regiment took its place in the great storming column. The work before them was known to be awful. For eight hours they bore the terrible suspense of expectation, to the suffering of which every soldier knows that actual battle brings unspeakable relief,—and then learned that the attempt would not be made.
At the battle of the Wilderness, on the 6th of May, 1864, his regiment was taken into action by its colonel. The division was sent forward at about seven A. M., to support General Birney, who was then pressed hard by Longstreet. Major Abbott was second in command, and rode on the flank of his battalion with a cheerful look. It was remarked of him at the moment, that he rode into the fight with a smile on his face. The battle raged very fiercely, and the dense trees turned white as the streams of bullets stripped them of their bark. Colonel Macy fell, and was carried to the rear. The command devolved upon Major Abbott, who was still unhurt. An advance was ordered, and he was gallantly leading on his faithful veterans, when a bullet struck him down, and he also was borne to the rear, mortally wounded. He survived for a few hours. His devotion to his men was shown in his last suffering moments, by a direction that all the money he left should be used for the relief of widows and orphans of soldiers of his regiment.
It is shown by this brief record that Major Abbott had been present at almost every one of the considerable battles of the
