A Table of Contents by chapter is providedfor the convenience of the reader after theContents.
R. E. McBRIDE.
IN THE RANKS:
FROM THE
Wilderness to Appomattox Court-House.
THE WAR,
AS SEEN AND EXPERIENCED BY A PRIVATE SOLDIER
IN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
By REV. R. E. M'BRIDE.
A tale of the times of old. The deeds of days of other years.
—Ossian.
CINCINNATI:
PRINTED BY WALDEN & STOWE,
FOR THE AUTHOR.
1881
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by
R. E. M'BRIDE,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PREFACE.
In giving this book to the public we do so under the same plea whichjustifies those pleasant gatherings called "reunions," where men of thesame regiment, corps, or army, meet to extend friendly greetings to eachother, to friends, and all comrades in arms.
The writer has found it a pleasant task to recall the scenes of fifteenyears ago, when, a mere boy in years, he had a part in the events hererecorded. He is conscious of a kindly affection toward the men who werehis companions during those stirring times. Kindness, thoughtfulness,forbearance, toward the boy-soldier, are not forgotten. If he found anything different from these in his intercourse with men or officers, ithas passed from memory, and he would not recall it if he could.
We trust, also, that this work may have a mission of utility to the[Pg 4]generation that has grown up since the war.
There is a certain almost indefinable something, which has been summedup under the expression, "military traditions." This comes not alonefrom formal histories of the wars of the nation, but more largely fromthe history which each soldier carried home with him after the war wasover. It meant something more than a certain amount of small familyvanity, when men used to say, "My father was a soldier of theRevolution;" "My father fought at Lundy's Lane."
There lay back of this the stories told to wondering little ones whilethey gathered around the arm-chair of the soldier grandfather. Here wereplanted the seeds of military ardor that found expression at Gettysburg,Vicksburg, Atlanta, and the Wilderness. It is thus the past of thenation projects itself into the present. Our comrades that sleep downyonder guard their country more effectually than if, full armed, theykept unceasing watch on all her borders. Though dead, they yet[Pg 5]speak,—yes live, in the spirit which yet lives in the hearts of theircountrymen. The cause they died for our children wil