… then the fun was over
18 March 2019
Sergeant Howard Rand, Company K, 6th New Hampshire Infantry was killed at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
While our men were exchanging shots with the enemy, both parties being posted behind trees, logs, or anything else to cover their heads, Sergeant Rand of Company K came along to W. W. French of Company B, who was behind a tree, loading and firing as fast as he could, and requested the latter to step back and load both rifles and let him do the firing awhile for both, as he considered himself a “good shot.”
French consented, and Rand took his stand at the tree. French passed the rifle up to Rand, who stepped to one side to get a better view of his man, but the “reb” was too quick for him, and shot him in the forehead, killing him almost instantly. He fell over upon French, and both rolled partially down the hill. French, laying his dead comrade aside, took his place at the tree again, but was careful not to let the “Johnnies” get the first shot at him.
There was something exciting in thus exchanging shots for an hour or so, with an enemy posted three or four hundred yards away, and where you could only now and then get a glimpse of him. This was sometimes carried on by the pickets and sharpshooters for hours, till one or the other was shot, and then the fun was over.
— Lyman Jackman, History of the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment in the War for the Union (1891).
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