The following is just the section that
applies to the Battle of Ox Hill from Dr. Welch's long letter about Second
Manassas.
Ox Hill, Va.
September 3, 1862
We did nothing Saturday morning (30th). There were several
thousand prisoners near by, and I went where they were and talked with some of
them. Dr. Evans, the brigade surgeon, went to see General Lee, and General Lee
told him the battle would begin that morning at ten o'clock and would cease in
about two hours, which occurred exactly as he said. Our brigade was not
engaged, and we spent the day sending wounded to Richmond.
Early Sunday morning (31st) we started away, and I passed by
where Goggans' body lay. Near him lay the body of Captain Smith of Spartanburg.
Both were greatly swollen and had been robbed of their trousers and shoes by our
own soldiers, who were ragged and barefooted, and did it from necessity. We
passed out over the battlefield where the dead and wounded Yankees lay. They
had fallen between the lines and had remained there without attention since
Friday. We marched all day on the road northward and traveled about twelve
miles.
The next morning (September 1) we continued our march towards
Fairfax Court House, and had a battle late that afternoon at Ox Hill during a
violent thunderstorm. Shell were thrown at us and one struck in the road
and burst within three or four feet of me. Several burst near Colonel
Edwards as he rode along, but he did not pay the slightest attention to them.
There were flashes and keen cracks of lightening near by and hard showers
of rain fell. The Yankees had a strong position on a hill on the right
side of the road, but our men left the road and I could see them hurrying up the
hill with skirmishers in advance of the line.
I went into a horse lot and established a field infirmary, and
saw an old lady and her daughter fleeing from a cottage and crossing the lot in
the rain. The old lady could not keep up and the daughter kept stopping and
urging her mother to hurry. The bullets were striking all about the yard
of their house.
Lieutenant Leopard from Lexington was brought back to me with
both his legs torn off below the knees by a shell and another man with part of
his arm torn off, but neither Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Kilgore nor our medical wagon was
with us, and I had nothing with me to give them but morphine. They both
died during the night. The battle continued till night came on and stopped it.
We filled the carriage house, barn and stable with our wounded, but I
could do but little for them. Colonel Edwards was furious, and told me to tell
the other doctors "for God's sake to keep with their command."
After doing all I could for the wounded, my brother, my servant
Wilson, and myself went into the orchard and took pine poles from a fence and
spread them on the wet ground to sleep on. I discovered a small chicken
roosting in a peach tree and caught it, and Wilson skinned it and broiled it,
and it was all we three had to eat that day. Wilson got two good blankets
off the battlefield with "U.S." on them and we spread one on the poles
and covered the other.
The next morning the Yankees were gone. Their General
Kearney, was killed and some of their wounded fell unto our hands. The two
other doctors with our medical supplies did not get there until morning, and
many of our wounded died during the night. I found one helpless man lying
under a blanket between two men who were dead.
We drew two days' rations of crackers and bacon about ten
o'clock, and I ate them all and was still hungry. I walked over on a hill
and saw a few dead Yankees. They had become stiff, and one was lying on
his back with his arm held up. I picked up a good musket and carried it back
with me to the house and gave it to the young lady I saw running away the day
before. She thanked me for it, and seemed very much pleased to have it as
a momento of the battle.
Late that afternoon we drew rations again, and I ate everything
without satisfying my hunger. A soldier came from another command and said
he heard I had some salt, and he offered me a shoulder of fresh pork for some.
Wilson cooked it and I ate it without crackers, but was still hungary.
During the night I became very sick from overeating, and next morning when
the regiment left I was too sick to march. Billie, Mose Cappock, Billy
Caldwell and myself all got sick from the same cause. We are all sleeping
in the carriage house, and I have sent Wilson out into the country to get something
for us to eat.
We hope to be able to go on and catch up with the regiment in a
day or two. It has gone in the direction of Harper's Ferry.
