Whilst the press teem with individual acts of heroism exhibited in the late battles of Chancellorsville, permit me to mention one, which I consider second to none in this army of heroes. The men belonging to the “Ambulance Corps,” being required to keep very near the rear of the Regiment to gather up the wounded, are constantly exposed to the fire of the enemy, and not having an opportunity to return the fire of the enemy there is no excitement to drown the thought of danger. At every step one meets with his dead and wounded comrades, and so powerful is the effect upon the nerves that many men who have acted well in line of battle, falter in this position. After the battle had been raging for some hours on Sunday, the woods, being thickly covered with dead leaves, were fired by the shells, where hundreds of our brave wounded comrades lay helplessly scattered. Upon these woods the enemy poured a most terrific and deadly fire and it seemed death to enter them in this awful hour. But Jesse R. Bettis, of the “Ambulance Corps,” exhibited the heroic courage of a Christian soldier. He did not falter for a moment, but went though the woods, raked the leaves from around them and thus saved hundreds of helpless wounded men from perishing in the flames. Hundreds of the wounded enemy were burned, because we could render them no assistance. It required the courage of a lion to face the shower of deadly missiles that swept every part of the woods where our helpless wounded were lying–and he who braved the storm to rescue them deserves to have his name written in letters of gold.
