So I have said that a lot of a soldiers life in the Civil War is camp life and waiting at orders. While this is true, it is not to say that there is no fighting. There certainly was, and plenty of it. The unit I am studying, the 19th Ohio Volunteer Artillery, did not fight in any really well known battles. They did not really start fighting until later in 1863, so a lot of the early months of the unit were spent in camp. But they did end up seeing some action. They joined up with General William Sherman and actually were a part of his Atlanta campaign (although they did not join him on his March to the Sea). The unit also has the distinction of firing the first shots of the Atlanta campaign. They did fight in a few battles in Georgia on their way to Atlanta in places like Resaca, New Hope Church, and Kennesaw Mountain.
One thing I can tell from my readings is that the fighting was fierce. It was very noisy with a lot of smoke coming from the cannons. And then there was the dead and the wounded. One story Tracie tells is the night after a huge battle the unit could hear the cries for help from the wounded Confederate soldiers still on the battle field. Reading it, I can't imagine how horrible that must have been. The Union soldiers could not help them, and for some reason the Confederates were not helping either. Whats worse is that in the morning the screaming had subsided substantially, but some of the men were still alive. Reading the description of this, its pretty powerful stuff.
I must say, that does sound quite horrifying. Though I think it's cool that you're getting to study this stuff. I wish my senior project was as cool as yours.
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