behind AotW

Our rations were out Sunday. Monday and Tuesday we had nothing but water …

Just about sunset, a cow came feeding in front of our lines. Gen. [G.T.] Anderson ordered her killed and divided among the brigade. Soon had my little piece broiled over the coals, and ate it with the blood running out, without either salt or bread. Just whetted my appetite with nothing more to be had. How long, oh how long before we get something to eat? While we are all so hungry you don’t hear any complaints among the men, all knowing that rations are not to be had, being so far from our line of communication, all of our supplies coming from Virginia. No foraging allowed by Gen. Lee on the enemy’s country. What a contrast between our invasion and that of the enemy, who take everything as they go.

– William H Andrews, First Sergeant, Company M, First Georgia Infantry (Regulars) at Sharpsburg on Tuesday, 16 September 1862

Here’s Sergeant Andrews many years later, probably as he looked as he wrote his memoirs, source of the quote above.

Thanks to Kevin Whitehead for sharing the photo of his 3x great-grandfather and for the lead to William’s memoirs. They were published in Footprints of a Regiment: a Recollection of the 1st Georgia Regulars, 1861-1865 (1992), edits and notes by Richard M. McMurry.