The Battle of Piedmont, Part 4

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

Part 3 here

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It seems that General Hunter had sent all other reserve force he could muster, such as dismounted cavalry, teamsters etc., everything that could carry a musket, by a long, roundabout road to come up in the rear of this blooming Rail Pen, and when he knew they were pretty near up he ordered us forward. The thing was timed pretty near right and the result was the Rebs couldn't stand the fire in front and rear, some of them lit out, over 1500 surrendered and any quantity of them passed in their chips. Among the latter was their commander, General Jones, who we found laid out inside the rail pen with a bullet hole in the centre of his forehead.

We all felt good at having licked them, this being our first victory, and we could not restrain our feelings, but the sight of dead and wounded Rebs that lay all round us put a damper on our spirits, for the slaughter had been terrible; the effect of the shots from our two Howitzers could be seen in the mutilated forms of the dead and dying Rebs. One poor fellow had been completely skinned the whole length of his back. It must have been done by a piece of rail as he lay on the ground, on his stomach. He was conscious and could talk with us, but one of our doctors who was there said he would not live a minute if we turned him over.

My brother Charlie was a private in Company "F" and all through the fight I had kept my eye on him, but after we got inside the rail pen I could not see him and none of the boys in his Company could tell me anything about him so I made up my mind he must have been hit in the last charge and I started on a hunt for him. I went all over the Ground we had traversed, looked at all of the bodies that lay in that part of the field, but could not find him. Then I went into the woods opposite the rail pen where our Howitzers had been but he was not there.

I found a lot of our wounded men down the hill near the stone wall where we drove the Rebs out but no Charlie. While I was making inquiries from some of them our Assistant Surgeon, Dr. Harrington, came up to me and says, "Here Sergeant, you are just the man I want. I want you to take this canteen and go down to the white house off there and tell the Medical Director to fill it with whiskey, and you bring it back to me as quick as you can. "But," says I "he will not give me any whiskey". "That's so" he says "but you wait". With that he took a memorandum book out of his pocket, tore out a leaf and wrote an order for the Medical Director to deliver to Sgt. Setchell one canteen of whiskey for use of wounded on the field, signed his name as the Asst. Surgeon of the 18th Connecticut Volunteers.

I started off on a run, but as it was about a mile to the white house he pointed out I did not run all the way. When I had slowed down to a walk I took out the order he had written and read it over. All of a sudden the idea struck me there was a chance for a speculation in it so I made a figure 2 out of the "1" and put an "s" on the end of "canteen" and I had an order for two canteens of whiskey.

I found the house and the Medical Director and he filled my canteen and the Doctor's without any question. Then I hunted the house for my brother. The house was full of wounded men, and the piazza which went all around it, was too; but no Charlie. Some of the wounded told me there was more in the barn so I went there and there I found him sitting on the barn floor with a pipe in his mouth smoking away for dear life. His arm and hand were bandaged up. He had been hit by a Rebel bullet right in the centre of the inside of his right wrist just as he was ramming a bullet into his musket while we were going in on the last charge. The bullet did not go clear through but stuck between two bones in his wrist. The Doctors had bandaged it but did not attempt to get the bullet out then, they were too busy.

It was quite painful and I happened to think some of the whiskey I had might help him to bear the pain so I spoke about it and you ought to have seen him smile when I shoved my canteen under his nose. I really thought he would empty it at one suck, as our canteens only held about three pints, but he had to stop to breathe and I got it back with some in it.

After talking with him a little I started for the hill again with my two canteens in my hand. I had not gone but a little ways when I met the Rebel prisoners we captured in the rail pen. They were being marched back to the Staunton turnpike under a strong cavalry guard, and as I passed by a good many asked me for a drink of water but I refused, telling them that it was for our wounded up in the woods. Away in the rear of the column I came to one poor fellow who had been hit by a piece of shell or a splinter from a rail. It had split his lip and chin open clear to the bone and it made a sickish looking wound. He says "For God's sake, Sgt., give me a drink." I says "Yes, you shall have some" and I handed him my canteen and winked at him to keep quiet, and he did, but I shall never forget the look he gave me when he found out what it was, but I could see he had never been punished for holding his breath.

He handed it back after a while and I guess he thought it was a pretty fierce article by the face he made up, and the way he hung on to his lip and chin. He thanked me, and said we might meet again, and I trudged on for the woods again. I slung my canteen over my shoulder and found Dr. Harrington and delivered him his, then I went around and found a good many boys of our Regiment that were wounded and gave them each a drink until my canteen was empty, when I started to find the Regiment.

I found them inside the Rail Pen, where they had made their coffee and most of them had gone to sleep as it was quite dark by this time. I went to one of the fires they had left burning, to boil a cup of coffee, and found our Orderly Sergeant, sewing a pair of Lieutenant's shoulder straps on to his blouse, by the light of the fire.

It seems after the fight he went to our Colonel Ely and asked him if he had meant what he said that day. The Colonel asked "What did I say, Orderly", and Kerr says "You called me Lieutenant."

The End.

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Pat