S covered with dead and wounded." "Yes," interrupts one of the
Fourteenth; "and they made that charge right gamely, too, I can tell
you. They were good soldiers, and well led. When we went over the works,
I remember seeing the body of a little Major of one of the regiments
lying right on the top. If he hadn't been killed he'd been inside in a
half-a-dozen steps more. There's no mistake about it; those regulars
will fight." "When we saw this," resumed the narrator, "it set our
fellows fairly wild; they became just crying mad; I never saw them so
before. The order came to strip for the charge, and our knapsacks were
piled in half a minute. A Lieutenant of our company, who was then on the
staff of Gen. Baird, our division commander, rode slowly down the line
and gave us our instructions to load our guns, fix bayonets, and hold
fire until we were on top of the Rebel works. Then Colonel Este sang out
clear and steady as a bugle signal: "'Brigade, forward! Guide center!
MARCH!!' "And we started. Heavens, how they did let into us, as we came
up into range. They had ten pieces of artillery, and more men behind the
breastworks than we had in line, and the fire they poured on us was
simply withering. We walked across the hundreds of dead and dying of the
regular brigade, and at every step our own men fell down among them.
General Baud's horse was shot down, and the General thrown far over his
head, but he jumped up and ran alongside of us. Major Wilson, our
regimental commander, fell mortally wounded; Lieutenant Kirk was killed,
and also Captain Stopfard, Adjutant General of the brigade. Lieutenants
Cobb and Mitchell dropped with wounds that proved fatal in a few days.
Captain Ugan lost an arm, one-third of the enlisted men fell, but we
went straight ahead, the grape and the musketry becoming worse every
step, until we gained the edge of the hill, where we were checked a
minute by the brush, which the Rebels had fixed up in the shape of
abattis. Just then a terrible fire from a new direction, our left, swept
down the whole length of our line. The Colonel of the Seventeenth New
York--as gallant a man as ever lived saw the new trouble, took his
regiment in on the run, and relieved us of this, but he was himself
|
