The Second Battle of Winchester
June 13-15, 1863

Everything was Quiet [at Winchester] until Saturday the 13th of June 1863. The weather was fine and balmy. We wished we were at home to help the farmers plant corn; something else turned up. Our videtts were fired on, [and] also our pickets; by the confederates. We did not know what force was coming against us out on the Winchester and Strawberry Pike. We were ready for them. Our pickets engaged them. I was on the picket line myself. It was the first engagement we ever were in, and we seen how they fought. We matched them at their own game. They kept hid behind Cedar and Pine bushes and Field rock and stumps. They were called the Mississippi and Louisiana Tigers. We did not know until afterwards what force we were fighting; there were only 7 thousand of us and about 70 or 80 Thousand of them against us-but we fought them all the same. Although our force there only made a skirmish line, but we held them outside on the 12th.

On Sunday the 13th [actually the 14th] they pushed us in [to] our last resort; at first we met them out about 1 mile from our center. We fought [there] and [then] retreated towards our center. We held them stubbornly and disputed every inch of ground. They were fighting us with a heavy skirmish line. At once they charged onto us with a whole Regiment on our light skirmish line. We gave them a volley from our skirmish line, then retreated toward our center. They pressed on. They now used cannons on us, and shot something at us: we thought it was pieces of railroad iron. It screamed and whizzed over our heads, and made a deathly noise. Some of these missiles went over our heads, and some lit on the ground. We could hear them thump.

Now on Sunday the 14th in the afternoon my company B of the 110th was sent to guard a battery of canons. They were behind earth works. Company B was also behind rifle pits for [Company] B to fight behind and keep the enemy from capturing our guns. Everything was quiet on Sunday the 14th. The boys were laying on the parapets in the sun. We came to the conclusion the confederates had all went to Church to get Religion, but they were only fixing to kill all of us. There was a pine mountain off about a quarter of a mile [to the west]. All at once ,Oh! here came a shower of shot and shell. The boys tumbled off the parapets like turtles drop off a log into the water. The pine mountain fairly blazed with canon. They sent showers of shot and shells at us. We could not reach them with our small rifles. It seemed they let loose about 50 or 60 canons. [We] could do nothing to them. They shot our little guns wheels off, and upset them. Then they ceased firing off the pine mountain, and our officers gave us orders to fix bayonets and [get] our guns loaded, and watch over the fields in front of us. We would see the confederate infantry come out of the brush, out of a ravine. We would get to shoot only one shot, then use our bayonets and club with our guns. They came in desperate order. We gave them a volley low down in their legs. They dropped out of ranks. We made large gaps in their lines, but they did not stop for they closed the gaps shoulder to shoulder. They had been in such scraps before. They gave us a volley, then came onto us with bayonets and a yell like Indians. We used our gun stocks to them the front and to the rear [?]. We clubbed them a while but to no use. Oh, we hurt some of them, but what could 80 soldiers do to 70 or 80 thousand. They overcrowded us but we made it hot for them for a moment. {We] were clubbing with the butts of guns, and thrusting the bayonet at and through each other. For a moment it looked like Hell. What could Co. B do to them, I thought? [We could] all get killed if we do not surrender. We did not surrender, we just quit and every man for himself. I seen my chance to get in a ravine close by and follow it. I did and then had to cross a level piece of ground to get our last resort and Fort [Winchester]. While crossing this, I was in plain view of them. They seen me get away. They sent the shot after me, but I would not halt. I went ahead towards the Fort with their bullets plowing the ground around my feet. I looked to be hit any moment, but I ran the Gauntlet all safe. My clothes were pierced with bullets, but my skin was not cut. I did not want to serve my time in a confederate prison. That is way I undertook to run the gauntlet as I did. The howitzers and canon in the last Fort shot over my head to keep them back so they could not come across to our last Fort.