Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/196

 190 Southern Historical Society Papers.

arm ; W. A. Lowder, severely in hand ; privates Jesse Tobias, severely in hip; P. W. Tobias, severely in chest; J. B. Hodge, severely in abdomen ; J. H. Evans, slightly in face ; Isaac Haily, severely in chest ; John Pelt, severely in hand.

In this battle the Confederate forces, besides the artillery already mentioned, aggregated twenty-six hundred men, of which fifteen hun- dred were of Hagood's brigade, and the rest Bushrod R. Johnson's. The Federal army greatly outnumbered us. Northern papers pub- lished lists of killed and wounded from five brigades. The esti- mated loss of the Federals was one thousand men, though prisoners captured (of which there were twenty-one) put it much higher. The Confederates lost twenty-three killed, one hundred and thirty-eight wounded, and twelve missing. There were of these one Tennesseean killed and six wounded ; all of the rest were from Hagood's brigade. General Butler's inefficiency is the only conceivable reason for his not turning our right flank and cutting us off from Petersburg. There were no troops between us and that city. The credit of saving that place belongs to the brigades of Generals Hagood and Bushrod R. Johnson.

At 10 o'clock on the night of the yth of May these two brigades and the artillery fell back towards Petersburg, and before daylight on the 8th crossed Swift Creek. Captain James F. Izler, of Company G, Twenty fifth South Carolina volunteers, was left in command of the pickets to protect the Confederate rear in this retrograde move- ment. On the morning of the 8th the Captain withdrew his pickets and rejoined the regiment. On the Qth of May the enemy advanced and took position 'on the north side of Swift Creek, in front of the Confederates.

I am unable to give an account of the desperate reconnoisance led by General Hagood on the gth of May in order to ascertain the strength of the enemy in front of the Confederate position. The general took with him the Eleventh and Twenty-first, and a detachment of the Twenty-fifth South Carolina volunteers, composed of Companies A, C, H and K, under the command of Captain James M. Carson, of Company A. Nor can I detail the incidents of the fighting near Drewry's Bluff on the i3th, I4th, I5th and i6th of May. The regi- ment, in these last-mentioned engagements, was commanded by Major John V. Glover, an officer in every way most worthy of the veterans of the Twenty-fifth. He furnished me with a list of the killed and wounded in these battles, and I here give, them, with the hope that some " survivor " may put on record an account of these