The thick undergrowth of The Wilderness made it almost impossible to determine friend or foe during the battle on May 6, 1864. Federal troops powered through dense woods and rebel volleys as best they could. At one rough patch, 1st Sgt. Joseph Bell Kemp and his comrades in the 5th Michigan Infantry struggled forward when shots struck close to home.
“His companion on his right suddenly plunged forward with a bullet through his head. The man on his left had screened himself by the trunk of a sapling, and was bandaging a gaping wound in his leg with a strip torn from his shirt. Kemp was comparatively alone,” noted a writer, who interviewed Kemp years later.
Kemp paused to deal with his fouled musket. Suddenly, three gray forms materialized from the woods, one carrying the regimental colors, and no more than 20 yards away. Kemp loaded his gun and took off after them, bringing one down with a shot.
Kemp, above right, is pictured as a first lieutenant in a carte de visite by an anonymous photographer. A note in his hand on the back of the image states, “It is salt that preserves sweetness.” Kemp is pictured again, this time in civilian clothes with his pals Fred, Frank, Wes and Charlie, in a carte de visite by Slee Bros. of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The image is dated on the back Nov. 10, 1865—about four months after Kemp mustered out of the army. Also on the back, in his hand, is “Eastman’s Bummers on a Burn.” No men with the surname Eastman served in the 5th. Rick Carlile Collection.