Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/150

 144 Southern Historical Society Papers.

ascertain if the enemy had left the woods. He soon returned with three prisoners, whom he had taken, and reported that they had gone, leaving their dead and wounded. There were six dead and one mortally wounded in one spot in front of Company B. A detail was then sent out to gather the arms and wounded. Six more wounded prisoners were brought in, and arms enough, of the most approved pattern, to replace the inefficient weapons, which, up to this time, were in the hands of several of the companies of the bat- talion. From the time we took our position, and for a long time afterwards, in fact, till after the enemy retired from the field in front of Secessionville, we were under a heavy artillery fire from the enemy's fleet of gunboats in the Stono and from their land batteries. No damage was done us by the artillery. Quite a number of Congreve rockets were flying over and around us in very eccentric directions. When we got into position, the men were ordered to lie down for better protection, and were lying down when the fight commenced. The field and staff-officers were in rear of Company B. After the enemy began to come out of the woods, and Company B commenced firing, I passed along the line to communicate with Colonel Stevens, who was in the rear of our right, endeavoring to prevent the men firing, still believing that the men in the woods belonged to his regi- ment. As I passed along, one of the enemy fired at me over our men from behind a stump. The ball struck the ground near my feet. I pointed him out, and after the battle he was found with three or four balls through his body. After assuring Colonel Stevens that the enemy and not his men were in our front, and causing the companies on the right to commence firing, I returned to my place. The bat- talion behaved splendidly. I saw but two men during the day who were not acting like heroes. Sergeant-Major Samuel W. Dibble drove one from his hiding place behind a tree about four inches in diameter, which he supposed in his fright covered his whole body. Colonel Hagood stopped the other, who was making his way to the rear and brought him back. No captain would claim either of them. Every one was ashamed to acknowledge that they belonged to his company, and I am not sure that either of them were of the Eutaws. They probably belonged to some other command. May have been some of the demoralized pickets who had been driven in. One com- pany of Colonel Stevens' regiment had fallen in with us and behaved very well. Both Stevens and Hagood acted very coolly. The former was not at all to blame for causing us to hold our fire so long, though this circumstance was unfortunate, as, had the whole battalion