Between the Lines

You are standing now just in front of the main section of Confederate fortifications. The primary line of Union entrenchments is 200 yards to your left. With the end of Grant’s attacks on the afternoon of June 3, the battle followed a less noisy but more sinister course. For the next nine days the armies hunkered down in their trenches and kept a wary eye on each other. Active sharpshooters prevented the men from showing themselves above the tops of the earthworks, while mortars randomly rained shells from above.<br><br>Vermont soldier Wilbur Fisk, stationed in the woods to the left, summarized the situation during this period:<br><br>&#8220;<i>The breastwork against which I am leaning is not more than 200 yards from the enemy’s lines, and in front of us are skirmishers and sharpshooters still nearer …. the field is open between us, but it is a strip of land across which no man dare to pass. An attacking party from either side would be mown down like grass …. I believe if the enemy should attack us we could kill every man of them before any could get into our works ….</i>&#8221;