Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/137

 .* D'i,l.

but seeing that his sword arm was disabled, saluted him instead, and passed on to seek another foe.

The high-roosting cock of the woods soon relieved him by again opening fire, but at Hampton's return shot the carbine fell from his grasp, and he jumped down, and, after picking it up with his left hand, retired to the rear. .

At that moment General Hampton received a blow on the back of his head that would have unhorsed a less stalwart rider. He turned upon his assailant, who instantly wheeled his horse, and fled at full speed. Hampton followed quickly in pursuit, his thoroughbred mare springing forward at the touch of the spur. The fleeing Fede- ral officer, for such his uniform stamped him, was also well mounted, but Hampton overtook him, and levelling a pistol within three feet of his head, pulled trigger. But the cap snapped. Several times he pulled, but with the same result. The Union officer bounded on, as if conscious of his peril.

Hampton was about to draw his sword, when his intended quarry turned short off to the left through a gap in the fence, which Hamp- ton himself had not seen until borne past it. He had the satisfaction of hurling the pistol at his flying foe, accompanying it with some words which did not entirely become his character as a vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but that was all.

A DEEP GASH.

General Hampton found that the Union officer's sword had given him a deep gash about four inches in length, and that but for the thick felt hat and heavy suit of hair he wore would have been cut to the brain. A few inches of courtplaster enabled him to keep on duty until he received a severe gunshot wound in the leg on the last of the -battle. Ten years later Colonel Frank Hampton, a young brother of the General's, while on a visit to Mobile became acquainted with a gentleman from Detroit who had been an officer in the Union army. A few days after their introduction the Detroit man said : "Colonel, I sought your acquaintance in order that through you I might make the amende honorable to your brother, General Wade Hampton. The sabre cut that he received on the head at Gettys- burg was inflicted by me, and the matter has troubled me greatly ever since. It was my only act during the war that I regret. I was a young fellow then of twenty-two and a lieutenant in the Sixth Michigan Cavalry. Seeing a solitary Confederate firing into our