The casualties, in the several skirmishes from the Ist to the 10th of April, near Camden,
were Officially reported, as follows:

Killed or Died of Wounds. Company A - Private Safra Villett, Company F - Corporal
Edward H. Bates. Company G - Privates Patrick Knox and William Anding. Company K -
Private Cassander Knowles - 5.

Wounded. Company A - Private Thron Olson. Company H Private Gunderson - 2.7"

April 11th. Held our position till 2 P. M., when we advanced half a mile or so. It began to rain
and we fell back again to our old position.””

[This] morning [April 11], details of men were sent back to the wagons to make coffee at fires
kindled behind some thickets, which hid them from rebel view.... [The] majority of the line had to
take the "hard-tack and sow-belly" in a raw state, and be thankful to have their coffee warm. The
remainder of the forenoon, we merely laid there, waiting orders. It was a beautiful day; and the
singing of the birds... contrasted oddly with the occasional booming of the cannon and the
continued skirmishing on some part of the line. As for us, we hunted rabbits, played euchre, read
old novels, wrote away at letters, slept, and so on, as though there were no thoughts of battle in
the world.

At 2:25 in the afternoon a forward movement commenced. The whole of our little army
was drawn up tn battle array.... We heard afterward, that when General Price saw us thus
advancing, he threw up his hands and exclaimed "My God! they are coming in clouds," and
immediately ordered a retreat. Toward evening we halted for some time, on the high prairie.
There was considerable skirmishing in front. The old [rebel] smooth-bore field-pieces threw
shot so awkwardly, that some would plunge into the ground far in front of us, and others would
come down so closely in our rear, that we began to have fears of being shot in the back, though
fronting the enemy. Meanwhile, as if for relief from the monotony of lying still to be shot at, an
old cow, with a bell on, started up near us, and was immediately pursued by some thing less than
a hundred shouting and laughing soldiers, but finally succeeded in making a fair escape.

That night we marched back to our previous camp...””°

On the morning of the 12th, anxious to meet the rebels in their works, our army moved forward,
keeping more in the direction toward the left of the line of fortifications. Now and then
skirmishers became engaged, but when we came in sight of their rifle-pits, which extended for
over 1 1/2 miles along the highest ridge, just on the skirt of the forest, the enemy's skirmishers

 

“8 E. B. Quiner, Military History of Wisconsin, p. 762.

*! Evergreen City Times, Sheboygan, May 28, 1864, p. 2/2 (no. 15/27 of note).

*° A. F. Sperry, History of the 33rd Iowa, p. 71.
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