5th U.S. Artillery, Battery M, soldier tells of repelling Longstreet at Signal Hill, December 1864

Soldier (Benton) writes wife pert. to an attack by Longstreet’s Corps & repulsing it “one corps of Longstreet came upon our cavalry pickets on Sat. morning (the 10th) and captured some of them, and still driving in our pickets & skirmishes all day until about 3 o’ clock…when they drove our men from the woods in the open eld some 2000 yards from our fort, when we were ordered tore upon them which we did, and made them get back under cover of the woods. Pretty lively I can assure you. And they did not make their appearance again. About dark we threw a few shells into the woods but what damage they done we could not tell. The boys stood by the guns nearly all night, and kept the horses ready for a start…one horse wounded by a stray ball, but not badly. The next morning our scouts went out and found the enemy had all left – not one to be found, except a few dead that they did not cover or carry away with them…”

#SiegeofPetersburg