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After the previous "battlefield pickups" thread I happened to run into some info in Charles Crosland's "Reminiscences of the Sixties" (The State Company: Columbia, SC 1910). Crosland describes part of his war experience this way:
"The last year or more of the war I was detailed for special duty and taken from active duty in my company and sent to Gen. Mart W. Gary's headquarters to act as courier and especially to act as clerk to Lieutenant R.W. Boyd, of Darlington, SC, and courier, who was on the staff of General Gary and was his ordnance officer. In times of battle I had to keep the ordnance train of wagons near the front and supplied with ammunition, during battle to keep touch with Lieutentant Boyd and General Gary and keep the wagon train where they ordered it, and after battle to collect rifles and ammunition captured, assort the different kinds of arms and deliver them to the government laboratory in Richmond, Va." (p.7)
Later after an engagement in the Petersburg siege (quite a shootup - and ugly aftermath - in itself,
but I'll save that can of worms for another day) he relates, "I was sent out to gather the abandoned arms (of enemy prisoners -wjl) and I took up eight wagon loads of them and carried them to the laboratory in Richmond. The field was dotted with dead negroes and white officers. The negroes had just been paid off and had plenty of greenbacks in their pockets and tintypes of their women at home. The ground was covered with codfish and hard tack. In assorting the different patterns of rifles I had the muzzle of one in my hand pulling it when it discharged, the ball passing through my coat sleeve, wristband and out at my back, going through side of my coat at body. It frightened me worse than the battle did."
"The last year or more of the war I was detailed for special duty and taken from active duty in my company and sent to Gen. Mart W. Gary's headquarters to act as courier and especially to act as clerk to Lieutenant R.W. Boyd, of Darlington, SC, and courier, who was on the staff of General Gary and was his ordnance officer. In times of battle I had to keep the ordnance train of wagons near the front and supplied with ammunition, during battle to keep touch with Lieutentant Boyd and General Gary and keep the wagon train where they ordered it, and after battle to collect rifles and ammunition captured, assort the different kinds of arms and deliver them to the government laboratory in Richmond, Va." (p.7)
Later after an engagement in the Petersburg siege (quite a shootup - and ugly aftermath - in itself,
but I'll save that can of worms for another day) he relates, "I was sent out to gather the abandoned arms (of enemy prisoners -wjl) and I took up eight wagon loads of them and carried them to the laboratory in Richmond. The field was dotted with dead negroes and white officers. The negroes had just been paid off and had plenty of greenbacks in their pockets and tintypes of their women at home. The ground was covered with codfish and hard tack. In assorting the different patterns of rifles I had the muzzle of one in my hand pulling it when it discharged, the ball passing through my coat sleeve, wristband and out at my back, going through side of my coat at body. It frightened me worse than the battle did."
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