I was left between the picket lines. There I was all night with none but the dead, saved

now and then a ghoul and gray searching the dead and stripping them of their clothing.

If seen by our pickets they were fired upon and driven away. The night was long and dark

to me. I thought if the boys could they would come for me.

Toward morning a man and gray came near me. He appeared to be looking about but not trying

to strip any bodies. He stood looking at me and I put out my hand and touched his foot.

He jumped as if surprised. He probably thought me dead. On recovering he stooped over,

asked me where I was shot. If I was cold and got a blanket, placed it under me and covered

me with two more. He sat by me some time, talking till it began to be light, then gave me

his canteen of water, saying he must get back to his post.

Private John B. Stowe, 9th Massachusetts Light Artillery, First Volunteer Brigade, Artillery

Reserve Army of the Potomac.

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode 362 of our Civil War Podcast. I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast.

After the sunset on the evening of Thursday, July 2nd, 1863, darkness covered the battlefield

at Gettysburg and Lieutenant George Benedict of the 12th Vermont, later remembered how he

heard an unforgettable sound that rolled over the crest of cemetery ridge where he and his

comrades were resting. He likened the sound to, quote, a low, steady, indescribable,

moan. It came from hundreds of voices calling out, pleading for help or for water. It was

the voices of the dying and wounded men who lay suffering in the darkness. Death had

stopped the battlefield at Gettysburg on July 2nd, leaving victims from one end of the

lines to the other, from Devils Dan and Little Round Top to the Wheatfield and Peach

...