[107]
Some Sharpsburg incidents.
Several months after the memorable battle, when I was nicely recovering from my wounds, a comrade related to me three incidents that came under his experience at Sharpsburg. I think them entirely relevant and worthy of space in this sketch since they rightly belong with the stirring events of that sanguinary field.Abont 6 P. M., when the heat and turmoil of battle had subsided, I was reminded that I had not eaten anything since early in the morning, and then only two ‘hardtacks’; three of us soon filled our haversacks with fine apples from a nearby orchard, then kindled a fire, got out frying pan, and a chunk of very fat mess pork; two of our party were slicing apples, B——doing the cook's duties. The first pan of apples was being turned into a tin plate, when bang! bang!! bang!! in quick succession, exploded three shells most uncomfortably near, tendering us the untimely and cruel compliments of a Federal battery which had spied us, and made a target of our little tea party. The Federal gunners soon had our range and dropped a dozen or more shells about us in a few minutes, doing no serious damage, causing us to postpone the meal on fried apples, in the mode a la Sharpsburg.
