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7 ENGAGING THE ENEMY THE EDGE OF BATTLE Often pickets, the trip wire of a defending army, made first contact with an advancing enemy, while attackers often sent out a forward guard. Skirmishers also preceded advancing columns perhaps a half to three-quarters of a mile to the front to “‘feel’ the enemy,” not knowing “what bush, tuft of grass, or hillock may conceal his deadly foe.”1 These men moved forward as they “played a deadly game of ‘Bo-peep,’ hiding behind logs, fences, rocks and bushes” as they fired on their counterparts.2 “But onward they must go,” explained New Jerseyan Peter Vrendenburgh, “till routed by a charge of superior numbers, cavalry or checked by artillery.”3 Meanwhile, men near the field waiting to commence the battle had time to reflect on their present circumstances and what awaited them in the very near future. If they expected to engage the enemy on the following day, soldiers spent time thinking about their families, their lives, and their souls.4 On the evening before the assault on South Carolina’s Fort Wagner, soldiers of the Sixth Connecticut tended to their accoutrements, while some of them sewed their names on their uniforms to allow ready identification of their bodies if they fell in the attack.5 New recruits might be eager to engage the enemy, as were the men of the 23rd New York Volunteer Infantry, who were waiting to move on to Richmond in the advance that would end at the First Battle of Bull Run.6 Other novices were perhaps nervous, as were the men of the Eighth NewYork Heavy Artillery, who were preparing to fight as untested infantry at Cold Harbor.7 Veterans knew better and prepared to fight resigned to what awaited them. On the day of the battle, soldiers again had time for reflection, as they waited to join the fight. At Shiloh, both Indianan George Squier and Mississippian Augustus Meckler waited only a short time before engaging the enemy, but it was long enough to wonder about the thousands of men who would die that day.8 Connecticut soldier Benjamin Hirst had similar thoughts as he stood in formation, prepared to advance on the heights beyond Fredericksburg in December 1862; time passed slowly “while a shell form the Rebels ever and anon, warned us of what would soon be the Fate of a many.”9 In May 1862 Confederate Edmund Patterson felt these very sensations as he waited to join the fight near Williamsburg, Virginia. “It was the first time that I had ever been called upon to face 152 THE CIVIL WAR death,” he reported. “I felt that in a few moments some of us standing here, vainly trying to jest and appear careless, would be in eternity....I did not feel afraid...but it was a painful nervous anxiety, a longing for action, anything to occupy my attention—nerves relaxed and a dull feeling about the chest that made breathing painful. All the energies of my soul seemed concentrated in the one desire for action.”10 While waiting in reserve, other men fought with their strained nerves. On May 31 and June 1, 1862, during the battle at Fair Oaks, Virginia, young Vermont soldiers became uneasy as they waited in reserve for two days, listening to the fighting, “watching the smoke of battle, and every moment expecting to be called in.”11 Earlier, Maine soldiers at the First Battle of Bull Run had to stand in reserve for some time, adding to the tense wait for combat. Abner Small reported that his brigade “stayed in that woods road for four mortal hours, longer hours than I had ever known....The long suspense fretted us. Our nerves jumped.” As they waited, they prayed.12 Mississippian Augustus Meckler, probably one of thousands who did so at Shiloh, “made a sincere, honest surrender ” of himself “to God,” prayed to live, and promised to “honor his name & benefit my fellow creatures” if granted his request.13 It was at this moment before joining the fray, not during the fight, when so much was beyond the control of the individual soldier, that men revealed their true nature. “All the demands of active service call for courage,” Abner Small explained, “but the real test comes before the battle—in the rear line...waiting.” There the men at “the edge of battle” could witness the danger that awaited them and be “near enough to feel its fierce pulsations and get...

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