Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 02.djvu/202

192 Dorn, the limbers of this battery are full of ammunition; may I not transfer some of it to my own boxes and go back into the fight?"

"Captain," said Van Dorn, "I am delighted by your request; certainly, sir, you can."

Wade at once drew up alongside the withdrawn battery, and had begun the transfer, when McDonald discovered what was going on, and asked if he might not have some too; and the whole contents of the recreant's limbers were in a few minutes transferred to Wade's and McDonald's batteries, who galloped off again, cheering and in high glee, to their places on the lines. I never have witnessed any thing more hearty and active than the satisfaction with which these gallant soldiers found themselves so unexpectedly in fighting order again.

Wade was ever after a great favorite with Van Dorn, and I have never known a more gallant battery commander than he was. He was always cheerful and alert, and never grumbled; kept his men, horses, guns and equipage in the best possible trim, and always looked after the comfort of his command, and knew how to find for them something good to eat and to drink, when nobody else could. His cheerful voice on the eve of a fight, and his bright face, had a mesmeric effect on all about him. His very spectacles seemed to shine with extra lustre, and his short stature to extend itself on such occasions. He was but little over five feet high. I do not think any man in the army, up to the last, was more respected than Wade. He became colonel of artillery, and fell at Port Hudson, decapitated by a shot from Farragut's fleet.

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[The defence of Charleston, South Carolina, was one of the most important, skilful and successful military operations of the late war for Southern independence, and if its history be ever written by one competent for the task, it will form one of the most interesting and instructive narratives of that great struggle. The bitterest hatred of the North was directed against that city. Not only was it regarded as the hot-bed of secession, but here, too, "the flag" had been first fired on, and a strong and important fort had been wrested from the United States troops. Northern wrath broke, therefore, in all its force, on that unfortunate place, and the most strenuous efforts