Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/171

Rh dash of Hedley Vicars about him. He had all the stern grit of the Puritan, with much of the chivalry of the cavalier and the zeal of the Apostle. There was at this time but one other Christian in his battery, a gunner named Allan Moore, also a backwoods Georgian, and a noble, enthusiastic man and soldier. The only other living member of Moore's family was with him, a boy of not more than twelve or thirteen years, and the devotion of the elder brother to the younger was as tender as a mother's. The little fellow was a strange, sad, prematurely old child, who seldom talked and never smiled. He used to wear a red zouave fez that ill-befitted that peculiar, sallow, pallid complexion of the piney-woods Georgian; but he was a perfect hero in a fight. 'Twas at Cold Harbor in 1864. We had been all day shelling a working party of the enemy, and about sunset, as adjutant of the battalion, I was visiting the batteries to arrange the guns for night-firing. As I approached C——'s position, the sharpshooting had almost ceased, and down the line I could see the figures of the cannoneers standing out boldly against the sky. Moore was at the trail, adjusting his piece for the night's work. His gunnery had been superb during the evening, and his blood was up. I descended into a little valley and lost sight of the group, but heard C——'s stern voice: "Sit down, Moore, your gun is well enough; the sharpshooting isn't over yet. Get down." I rode to the hill. "One moment, Captain. My trail's a hair's breadth too much to the right;" and the gunner bent eagerly over the handspike. A sharp report that unmistakable crash of the bullet against the skull, and all was over. 'Twas the last rifle-shot on the lines that night. The rushing together of the detachment obstructed my view; but as I came up, the sergeant stepped aside and said, "Look here, Adjutant." Moore had fallen over on the trail, the blood gushing from his wound all over his face. His little brother was at his side instantly. No wildness, no tumult of grief. He knelt on the earth, and lifting Moore's head on his knees, wiped the blood from his forehead with the cuff of his own tattered shirt sleeve and kissed the pale face again and again, but very quietly. Moore was evidently dead, and none of us cared to disturb the child. Presently he rose quiet still, tearless still gazed down on his dead brother, then around at us, and,