Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/158

 152 Southern Historical Society Papers.

and two from Company A, Washington Light Infantry, died in Charleston.*

On the 22d day of July, 1862, the Clarendon Guards reported for duty, and the Eutaws ceased to exist as a battalion and became the Twenty-fifth South Carolina volunteers.

July 19 to August ji. There were no further active operations on James Island during the summer. Picketing, watching arid waiting, with plenty of drilling, were our occupations during the month of August. General Taliaferro, of Virginia, was in command on the island. Brigadier-Generals Hagood and Colquitt were also there, and Colonel Simonton was still in command of a portion of the lines. The new lines were commenced and soon completed. Why the old lines were ever located on the ground occupied by them, was one of the mysteries known only to the Engineer Department. The new lines ran from a point opposite the neck of the Secessionville Penin- sula to the Stono river, between Grimballs and Dills. They were scarcely one-fourth the length of the old, and enabled the Confed- erates, with a smaller force, to hold a much larger portion of James Island. They were well constructed, with proper flanking arrange- ments, and were very strong. They looked like works designed to be held, and not for temporary shelter and protection. Their con- struction diminished the chances of the capture of the island four-fold.

During the month the regiment broke camp at " Camp Pettigrew " and went to "Camp Gadberry," at Freer' s Store. I was, in general, ably and cheerfully assisted by the line officers in maintaining disci- pline. It might not, perhaps, be fair to attribute any part of their zeal to an order issued while we were at the latter camp. (It is merely mentioned now as a matter of history.) The order alluded to an- nounced to the command that no private soldier would ever be pun- ished for any negligence in the discharge of duty, which might, by the exercise of diligence, have been prevented by the officer in charge, but that officers alone would be held accountable, and their' s would be a strict accountability. The principle was proper, and I had the support of my subalterns in its enforcement. A necessity for invok- ing it was seldom found. The knowledge that it would certainly be

their lives to their country, and are as much entitled to honorable mention as if they had fallen in battle. Death is shorn of some of his terrors by the glamour which surrounds his approach on the field of carnage. The greatest heroism is required to meet the dread Conqueror amid the sufferings of the hospital.
 * I regret that I am unable to give the names of.these men. They gave