Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 04.djvu/178

170 Harris was further to the right, where he and his regiment were exposed to the terrible fire of the two pieces, which swept the gorge, as well as to the infantry fire of the enemy's left. A ball passed through the heart, killing him instantly. His gallantry had been most conspicuous.

I had no means of ascertaining the precise loss of the enemy. In killed and wounded it must have been large. Dead and wounded lay scattered over the ground of the conflict and of the retreat. From the latter they were removed by the enemy during the night.

We took about three hundred prisoners in all.

The conduct of both officers and men was generally, as far as I could observe it, excellent.

Under a fire from so many cannon, and towards the last from so much musketry, they advanced steadily over ground for the most part open, mounted a difficult height, drove back from it the enemy, occupied his line, took three guns, captured a number of prisoners, and, against his utmost efforts, held all they had gained.

The captured guns were taken by the Twentieth Georgia (Colonel Jones, and after his death, Lieutenant Colonel Waddell), the part of the First Texas above referred to (Colonel Work), and the Seventeenth Georgia (Colonel Hodges), but the honor of the capture was not exclusively theirs. They could not have taken, certainly could not have held the guns, if Lieutenant-Colonel Harris, and after his death, Major Shepherd, on the left with the Second Georgia, and Colonel DuBose, with the Fifteenth Georgia, on the right, had not by the hardest kind of fighting and at great loss protected their flanks. Colonel DuBose not only drove back the enemy's line, but repulsed repeated attacks made to recover it, taking over one hundred prisoners. The same may be said of the Second, except that it did not take so many prisoners.

To my staff, Captain Seaborn J. Benning, adjutant; Lieutenant John R. Mott, aidaide [sic]; and Lieutenant Herman H. Perry, brigade inspector, voluntarily acting as aidaide [sic], I was much indebted. They performed well duties that kept them in almost constant danger. The former having been disabled by a wound, the whole weight of staff duty towards the end of the fight fell upon the two latter.

At the close of the day the fighting ceased, and I employed the night in arranging my line, establishing pickets, and removing the