Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/83

 The Battle of the Wilderness.

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B; John Mingea, Company B; W. A. Jelks, Company B; and R. B. Barnes, Company F; and forty-seven wounded, two of whom, it is thought, are mortally wounded Ben. White, Company C, and William Delbridge, Company I. Among the wounded are Captain Stephen White, Company C; Sergeant George Morrison,* Com- pany A; and private John Lee, of Company E. There were unfor- tunately three cases of accidental wounding in the regiment. What were the casualties in the other regiments of the brigade I have not heard. Among those in the brigade, however, I hear of Captain R. Taylor, of General Mahone's staff, and of one of the General's couriers, Bernard,f being wounded, and also Lieutenant-Colonel Minetree, of the Forty-First.

"A most unfortunate affair occurred just as the Twelfth was return- ing from the advanced position to which they had charged the enemy. They were fired into by the Forty- First and I hear also a part of the Sixty- First regiment, who took us to be thje enemy. This fire wounded, and perhaps killed, some of our men, but, what is most unfortunate, it wounded General Longstreet and killed Gen- eral Jenkins, who were riding along the plank-road just at the time. Our division and Heth's are now in line of battle in reserve. From what I can gather, we gained not much by the fight of Thursday, except four pieces of artillery, and, I hear, three thousand prisoners. We lost heavily in wounded, judging from the large number we met on the road yesterday morning. In the fight of yesterday we had greatly the advantage, driving the enemy a half mile and killing large numbers of them.


 * # *ij ^C * * ^ ^

" 'Among the incidents of the fight I must mention the conspicu- ous gallantry of a member of our company, Jim Farley, J now of the sharpshooters, who received two wounds, one in the shoulder and the other in the face, but continued to charge on with the regiment to the most advanced position. The gallantry of Lieutenant- Colonel Sorrel, of Longstreet' s staff, was also very conspicuous. He led us into action on horseback, waving his hat and crying out : "Come on, Virginians ! "

" ' General Wadsworth, of the Yankee army, was found wounded (it is believed mortally) in that portion of the field over which the


 * George J. Morrison, of Petersburg.

f George S. Bernard, Petersburg, Virginia.

t James A. Farley, killed at the Crater, July 30, 1864.