Transcription:
taken by the enemy, unless he should first take my
entire ditches or rifle pits. This was the last
ground assault made upon me, and so terrible
had been the fighting at this point, that the
position was called "Fort Desperate".
After this the enemy commenced advancing from
the edge of the woods, in my front by regular
approaches ¹. Seeing this and believing that my
safety alone depended upon being able to check
him, I excavated a tunnel ² underneath my works,
to pass out between[?] these approaches if they
should be brought too near. I should have
commenced working [?] these [sooner] but, I had no
men to work. I had, at several times at the
commencement of the siege asked for working
parties to assist me, but having failed in all
applications I made the most of my bad fortune
and worked without assistance. I could not pass
men over the works. hence the tunnel. I also threw
up a large cover of earth, sufficiently thick to
be proof against artilery, and sufficiently high to
overlook the working parties of the enemy, when
they approached within forty yards. And so great
had become havoc made amongst them by my sharpshooters from
this tower ³ that on the 5th of July, these working parties
disappeared from my front and I was not
¹ Johnson is referring to the trench, or "sap", that the Federals dug to within a few yards of the fort's exterior wall after the June 14th assault.
² This was a tunnel dug under the earthworks connecting to a ditch outside, so that the man could safely move from the interior of the fort to the outside ditch and fire down on the attackers.
³ This sharpshooter's tower also featured barrels with cut-out holes through which they fired their rifles.