AAR from Summer of '62
By Greg Bullock, LHSNJ

I arrived on friday evening and found Bill sitting at the registration table making himself useful. Once we parked the truck and were changed we hopped into the nice shuttle and had a relaxing ride back to the camps. We found our company just up the road from the parking lot which was nice if we needed something from the sutler, but just far enough away that if you looked down the road from our camp you couldn't see them. We were in the woods just back off the road and we set up our shebangs and fly in the little cove we had.

The weather looking as nice as it did made us think back to the weather the night before the Saylers Creek event in 2000. A nice friday night where you didn't think you would need your blanket or such and could lay out under the star. Unfortunately that was not to be the case, what started as the nice sprinkle and tapped on my poncho, turned into a nice rainstorm which soaked the shelter half I was laying on rather than under. Needless to say on saturday we remedied that situation. Catching sleep when I could and stoking the fire when I couldn't I made it through the night. Finally I was saved by the call of reville.

Time to get up, stoke up the fire, get the boys up and moving and do a roll call to see what we have for the day. I turned in my morning report to the adjuntant, and found out who we would be falling in with that day. We joined forces with some boys from the 10th VA (IVR), and after breakfast and morning parade and drill, we rested until it was time for the division parade. During this extravaganza, which we in the ranks (Sgts and lower) realized that this was more for the officers to show off than for us to enjoy, one of the privates in our company stated that he was just too ADD for this. And couldn't believe that we were going to march in a large circle through the field.

We formed up for the afternoon battle and it was the first time I went into the battle actually knowing the scenario and what should happen. Which is neat but I was even surprised at how during the battle, I was caught off guard by the Federals who appeared in our flank and rear. We were part of the refused line and next to the color company who particpated in the hand to hand fighting. Also thanks to the Feds who came at us and when we signaled that we weren't part of that scenario actually pulled back and adjusted their movement. We being caught on the flank and rear broke, but were able to rally and slow the retreat a little.

Back to camp to rest, "clean" the rifles, eat and prep for the evening. This is where the weekend really picked up for our unit. Col Pridgeon gave us a stirring speech about the evenings battle, read some first hand accounts to us while we were formed up. Then when we stacked arms behind the battery on the left and waited we thought about what we were getting into. Also we talked about when the rain would let up. All that was forgotten when that first cannon shot took off. The smoke hung on the field like a specter and we watched in the distance to see if the Federals would react to it. And boy did they, through the smoke we watched them come on, first the skirmishers, then the main lines. Then we heard our boys go forward and the fight just erupted on our right. Col Pridgeon gave us another fine speech and our dander was up. We went forward on the left and joined the fight. We hugged the ground like the GA boys did and had such an intense fight, that we didn't hear the bugle call to end it. One of the boys was in the moment and cried out almost to tears. It added an eerie feeling to the moment, the silence interrupted by the wailing. Once we formed up, we realized that the rain had stopped and wondered when that had occurred. We also came to the consensus that the weekend could have stopped right there and we would have called it the best event ever. That is a night that we will talk about for a long time to come.

I watched some of the play, but being exhausted from the fight and not having a dry spot to sit, I headed back to camp to try to relax and rest up for Sunday.

Sunday started off nicely when the sun appeared and the boys were up and getting breakfast. There was some fun in camp as the boys from Louisiana played a joke on Col Pridgeon. We also went after our whiskey ration that had been promised us. In the end we were given our ration and the boys were ready for the fight coming. We deployed along the fence line and began building up the breastworks, our boys were on the left of the line. We watched as the Federals headed toward the right and the fighting picked up. We cheered when we saw the perfect advance by the boys in blue and the hits they took, then the retreat and advance again. And I'll be.. more hits. It looked great and then we looked to our front and there they were. We fired the volleys we could but the boys closed on us quickly and were in our works before we could do anything. Some of the boys broke, I was captured with most of the company. We were escorted to the copse of trees in the middle of field to watch/listen to the rest of the fight. We were tickled to watch the Federals climb back over our works that they had just taken moments before. Some of them looked good as they retreated in a fine order.

Once the battle was over and we were back in camp, we packed up and headed out to the cars for the drive home. I got home that evening tired, smelly and sore and still excited from a great event.

All in all a good weekend, and look forward to more events like that. The rain added to the event and helped to give us a piece of what they went through. The fights had some magic moments. I give it 2 thumbs up and tiger.