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| The scene outside Petersburg, June 18, 1864. The Hare House on hill at left marks the location of attack conducted by the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery regiment. Later, it became the site of Union Fort Stedman. Bradford's (Confederate) Battery unlimbered off to the right on the high ground north of the river during the fighting on June 18. LOC (W.Waud) |
Fred C. Lowe (1st Maine Heavy Artillery)
"Our regiment went into the charge with 900 men (some of our officers think we had only 850 men in line). We charged in three lines of battle, four companies of each, the regiment being commanded by Major (afterwards Bvt. Brig. Gen.) Russell B. Shepherd. In five minutes 632 men and officers were killed and wounded of whom 210 (whose names I read at the dedication of the monument) were killed and died of their wounds. The casualties of the regiment were in excess of those officially reported."
-- Fred C. Lowe, 1st Maine Heavy Artillery (from letter to George S. Bernard quoted in P.C. Hoy, "Of the Siege of Petersburg: Some Interesting Recollections of an Officer in Bradford's Battery" in Civil War Talks)
P.C. Hoy (Bradford's Battery)
"Here we were ordered to unlimber and immediately open fire upon the enemy's infantry, who were then in heavy force assaulting our lines on the south bank of the river, all the way it seemed, from the river southeasterly towards O.P. Hare's residence . . . we could not distinctly see the men in the assaulting [column] . . . but, from the smoke and heavy musketry, we could hear, we knew that a hard fight was in progress. Our position was excellent, about eight hundred yards from the right flank for the Federal attacking column, and our guns quickly enfilading the right flank of the line with shells . . . ."
-- P.C. Hoy (from Hoy's recollections in Civil War Talks)