Many of the men, in fact, found that serving as a litter bearer was even more arduous than duty along the front line. "At every step one meets with his dead and wounded comrades, and so powerful is the effect upon the nerves that many men who have done well in line of battle, falter in this position," one veteran soldier from O’Neal’s Brigade explained in a letter to his hometown newspaper following the fierce fighting at Chancellorsville. His account can be found in H. M. J. to Editor, May 30, 1863, Clark County Journal, June 18, 1863.