Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/455

 Colonel Kugene Waggaman. 449

On the ist of July, 1862, came the battle of Malvern Hill, and with it came glory and fame to the Tenth. The story of the battle is well known, but the account of " that charge, less famous, but equally as desperate as that of Balaklava," will bear repetition. The follow- ing narrative of it is taken from the Military Record of Louisiana, by the late lamented Napier Bartlett, published some fifteen years ago, viz :

" A daring attempt in the first place had been made to flank Mal- vern Hill ; but this movement had been met by a superior flanking party of the enemy. The brigade now pressed forward across the open field fronting Malvern Hill with the ardor of young soldiers panting for their first laurels, and ignorant of the madness which had doomed so many of their numbers to cruel wounds or certain death. As they advance the troops on the flank give way, though all of Semmes' brigade continued on gallantly in spite of the waning light. When within five hundred yards of the Federals the brigade reformed, and the desperate cry rang out, 'Fix bayonets charge!' com- mands almost equivalent to a death sentence. But with the natural ardor of the troops from the Pelican Slate, the men labored up the crest of the plateau immediately in front of thirty-three pieces of artillery. Up the hill they go at a double-quick, Colonel Wagga- man jumping imprudently far in advance of the regiment, but the men tearing on after him. On the last fifty yards of the charge comes the strain. It lasts but five minutes. In that time one hundred and twenty-seven men are lost out of two hundred and seventy-two. So withering was the storm of shell and bullets with which they were received that at one time they walked over a whole regiment who were lying down, colors and all, and who appeared in the dusky twi- light to be so many corpses. Onward still the little band pursued its way, although unsupported by the other troops, until it crossed bayonets with the Federal infantry. It thus happened (one of the rarest occurrences of the war) that the whole of the Tenth Louisiana engaged in a bayonet struggle along almost their entire line, with a force fifteen times greater than their own number. The advanced line of the Federals having been driven back, the Tenth finds itself among the cannoneers. While Dean, a brave Irishman, was receiving his death wound at the side of the leader of the Tenth by a bayonet through the neck, the latter succeeded in knocking up the muskets in his immediate front and in cutting a path as far as the second line of the enemy's artillery. His death seemed inevitable. Cries of 'Kill him,' 'bayonet him,' sounded on all sides. His command,