Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/79

 Tin /'/////-/*////// \itrlli Curiil'nin Infantry. 73

those nu-ii nl tlu- brave South Carolinians who had formed with n-, when dri\en from tin- salient, he, who had so often led us with such t-alm, intn-pid courage. Lieutenant-Colonel John A. Fleming, was shot through the head and instantly killed. .Never was a braver knight than he; our State had no more devoted son than Fleming; the South no truer soldier. Somewhat reserved in bearing, severe to those who failed in duty, and disdaining all pretense and insin- cerity, he did not desire nor practice the arts which seek popularity. Hut he was so brave, so ready, so steadfast and constant in all trying ron junctures, as in his friendships, that his officers and men loved and respected him and followed him with implicit zeal and faith. He had said to the writer more than once that he was convinced that he would be killed; and the last time he repeated it, soon after some disaster to our arms, remarked that he would have few regrets in laying down his life if, by so doing, the freedom of the South could be secured. From early morning till nearly 3 o'clock in the after- noon of that fateful July day, the Twenty-fifth and Forty-ninth North Carolina and Twenty-sixth South Carolina held our line against tremendous odds, and until the force of the assault was spent and broken, when Mahone's Virginia, Wright's Georgia and Sanders' Alabama Brigades charged with the Twenty-fifth North Carolina and retook the entire salient, inflicting frightful slaughter upon the enemy. Our lines were reestablished, and the* Federals were driven back at all points, losing, it was stated, more than 9,000 men, killed and wounded, besides 2,000 prisoners, colors and small arms captured in the undertaking. And when the victory was won, and the Forty-ninth was returning to its former position, Captain Edwin Victor Harris, of Company E, was shot through the neck, severing the main artery; and with his life blood gushing from his wound and his mouth, realizing his mortal calamity, but unable to speak, he extended his hand in farewell to Major Davis, and then to his devoted Lieutenant, John T. Crawford, and immediately the spirit of Edwin Harris, so joyous, happy and bright in this life, winged its flight to God. We, who knew his inmost thoughts for he was as open as the day, and had a loving word and a cheerful smile for all he met know that he was pure and gentle. It is not difficult to imagine that in the choirs of the ever blest the sweet, clear tenor voice, that in song brightened the troubled way and stirred the tenderest emotions of his brother soldiers around the camp-fire and on the march, will join their glad anthems, when his