"The Atlanta Constitution" September 25, 1887-page 11
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An Old Veteran Gives Some of his Experiences of the War:

Elder, Oconee County Ga., September 23.
Editors Constitution:-- Having read so many war stories in your valuable paper, I am constrained, especially by the one on "How Soldiers Die," to write a description of a few events as seen by my eyes; that the answers to the questions which I shall ask may give me information which I have long desired. I, like the author of the above mentioned story, was in my first battle.

After a hard march we halted, on the 5TH of May, 1864, to get the troops more together I suppose, (as Longstreet was just returning to the Virginia army from his tour through Georgia and Tennessee.) We again began our march about midnight for the engagement of the 6TH.

By a forced march and by plantation roads we came to the pike where the old railroad cut crosses it. Moving down the pike to near where the only battery of the whole engagement was in action. Wofford's brigade, to which the Third Georgia Battalion of Sharp Shooters belonged, of which I was a member, moved to the right in the direction of the old railroad cut, took our position on the federal extreme left, and made an attack. (We being the first of Longstreet's corps to reach the field.)

We found the federals in a dense thicket of undergrowth. After being engaged about an hour , first one, then the other giving ground, our brigade was drawn from the fight by moving still on toward and to, the old railroad cut. Moving down the cut some distance and getting a flank movement on the federal's left, we made another attack which drove them back in a very confused manner until we reached the pike again. This time where it made an arc of a circle or elbow. At the point of the elbow and, at our brigade's extreme left, was a small fort made of logs, poles, etc., in which about one hundred federals stopped in their flight, and remained there firing at us, and we obliquely to our left at them. We had things hot for awhile.

While we were firing at the federals and they at us, Longstreet and staff came up the curve of the pike which was on the opposite side of the fort from us; and just there he was wounded.

Now, I ask; Is it not very likely that we gave him the shot that came so near taking his life? I feel almost sure that we did, as we were the only men that were shooting in that direction. At the same instant there came up the other end of the elbow of the pike a command of federals led by a mounted officer, seemingly to support those in the little fort, and when they were in seventy-five yards of the fort some of us turned our blazing rifles toward them and the officer instantly fell from his saddle dead.

Does any one know who that officer was? and what was his rank? His men about faced and went back without firing a gun, and the dead officer was left on the field.

When those in the fort saw their reinforcements failed to reach them, they retreated in a very hasty and confused manner, and the fighting for the day closed with that part of the line almost as sudden as a thunderclap. Not following up the retreat any longer we were left at leisure the remainder of the day. I walked out into the pike and about twenty steps from me lay propped against a tree, near where there was tent stretched apparently for a federal commissary, a wounded confederate, who called to me to bring him some water; whose name I did not learn nor how he was wounded; and who told me that he had lain there two days, and if I saw any of the 44TH Georgia to tell them where they would find him. After sharing my water and giving me some good advice, he told me (as he knew from my appearance that I was young in the cause) that I had better move on, or I might get lost from my command and have some trouble. Now, as there was one company in the 44TH from Clark County, of which Oconee was then a part, I would like to know if any one knows who he was? I would like to meet him again if he still lives. I thought him to be about Thirty-five years old.

W. F. Phillips

Third Georgia Battalion Sharpshooters

Wofford's Brigade