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wheels. The battery was then ordered forward to take a position in a field about three-quarters of a mile from the enemy's entrench- ments. No sooner had they got into position in this field than it was evident the battery had been drawn into an ambuscade, and the enemy's cannon opened on them from the entrenchments. Belgian rifle balls whistled through the battery and over the heads of the men in myriads. The battery fired four rounds on a Yankee battery en- trenched to the south of Mechanicsville, and were ordered to retire to the cover of the woods, on the left, which they did in good order, amid a fearful storm of bullets and shells, but, remarkable to say, none of the men were struck.
After remaining half an hour in this wood, the battery was ordered back into the same field. It then unlimbered under a terrific fire from Gardner's United States battery, stationed behind entrenchments two thousand yards in front. No sooner had. our battery fired a shot than the fire of two other batteries, one on the left and the other on the right, also concentrated upon it. The enemy's fire was swift and terrific. The carnage among our men was fearful, but manfully and cooly they stood to their guns, and until dark poured their deliberate fire into the enemy's entrenchments. Many of the wounded refused to retire, and stood to their posts till the close of the fight. When the order was given to cease firing the guns were almost red hot. William Stillman was struck by a canister shot and instantly killed in this fight, and Lieutenant Allen and forty others were wounded. Lieutenant Fitzhugh was also wounded, but remained with the bat- tery. Twelve horses were killed and others slightly wounded. The battery slept that night on the field in the position it had occupied during the battle.
The next morning (Friday) all the enemy's entrenchments at Mechanicsville had been carried by our infantry.
At 10 A. M. Friday morning the Purcell battery moved forward in the track of the retreating enemy, and at 4 o'clock that evening got under his fire while awaiting orders two hundred yards to the west of the Cold Harbor house. Here two men were struck, one by a fragment of a shell, and the other by a minie ball.
At 5 o'clock P. M., the battery was ordered to take position in the garden at Cold Harbor, between the barn and the house, and to shell the woods to the southeast, where large bodies of the enemy's infantry were drawn up. None of our men were killed here, though
