Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/19

 Annual Reunion of Pegram Battalion Association. 13

were admirably served, his loss was proportionally very nearly as great as at Mechanicsville.

But he was resolute to push on with the rest of the army to Ma- nassas, where, for the second time, his guns did good service on* that glorious field.

In the investment of Harper's Ferry, where all the artillery was served with marked efficiency, his battery and that of Crenshaw won especial attention owing to their good fortune in occupying a position deemed inaccessible and very near the town. In his official report of the capture of the place, General Jackson says : " Lieutenant- Colonel Walker opened a rapid enfilade fire from all his batteries at aboutone thousand yards range. In an hour the enemy's fire seemed to be silenced, and the batteries of General Hill were ordered to cease their fire, which was the signal for storming the works. Gene- ral Pender had commenced his advance, when the enemy again open- ing, Pegram and Crenshaw moved forward their batteries, and poured a rapid fire into the enemy. The white flag was now displayed, and shortly afterwards Brigadier- General White, with a garrison of eleven thousand and ninety men, surrendered as prisoners of war."

On the capitulation of the post, Pegram was enabled to refit his battery thoroughly from the vast quantity of captured munitions of war, and moved with Walker's Battalion up to Sharpsburg. Here he received his first wound, a fragment of shell striking him on the head. He refused, however, to avail himself of leave of absence, and within a fortnight was on duty with his battery.

After "Sharpsburg" came a period of rest, grateful beyond ex- pression to the worn veterans of Jackson's corps. Recrossing the Potomac, they went into camp, after the brilliant combat at Shep- herdstown, along the Opequan in the lovely valley of the Shenan- doah.

Thus passed October.

In November, Jackson moved slowly in the direction of Millwood, and early in December was ordered to rejoin Lee in the neighbor- hood of Fredericksburg. Here, in the action of the 13th, Pegram bore his usual part. Jackson, riding along the front of Lane and Archer, said curtly: "They will attack here." On the right of that front, crowning the hills nearest Hamilton's Crossing, ioxxrieGn picked guns were posted by his order. These guns consisted of the batteries of Pegram and the intrepid Mcintosh, of South Carolina, with a sec- tion each from the batteries of Crenshaw, Johnson and Latham. On the left were posted twenty-one guns, among them the " Letcher