A Dangerous Position

On the dark, moonless night of September 14, 1862, one hundred men from the 126th New York Regiment established a skirmish line here after only a few short weeks in uniform. Having already endured a terrifying afternoon of relentless Confederate artillery fire, these inexperienced soldiers were placed in a dangerous and vulnerable front-line position at a moment when a Confederate attack would have been especially threatening. Lieutenant George York of Company I recalled that on Sunday evening, the second day of the fight, he was ordered out in front of camp to skirmish because the Rebels were getting rather thick, and after being awake for three nights, he felt exhausted and exposed as the hundred men under Lieutenant Munson and himself searched their way down Bolivar Heights to the front of camp and finally reached their post.

West Virginia · United States