Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/199

 /'/>, ('y men in houses. nc especially severe that from Mr. Carter's, immediately in my front. I was near i -nil Stiahl, \\lio stood in the ditch, and handed up guns to those posted to tire them. I had passed to him my short Enfield (noted in the regiment), about the sixth time. The man who had been tiring, cocked it and was taking deliberate aim, when he was shot, and tumbled down dead into the ditch upon those killed before him. When the men so exposed were shot down, their places were sup- plied by volunteers until these were exhausted, and it was necessary for General Strahl to (all upon others. He turned to me, and though I was several feet back from the ditch, I rose up immediately, and walking over the wounded and dead, took position with one foot upon the pile of bodies of my dead fellows, and the other in the embankment, and fired guns which the General himself handed up to me until he, too, was shot down. One other man had had posi- tion on my right, and assisted in the firing. The battle lasted until not an efficient man was left between us and the Columbia Pike, about fifty yards to our right, and hardly enough behind us to hand up the guns. We could not hold out much longer, for indeed but few of us were then left alive. It seemed as if we had no choice but to surrender or try to get away, and when I asked the General for counsel, he simply answered, " Keep firing. " But just as the man to my right was shot, and fell against me with terrible groans, Gene- ral Strahl was shot. He three up his hands, falling on his face, and I thought him dead, but in asking the dying man, who still lay against my shoulder as he sank forever, how he was wounded, the General, who had not been killed, thinking my question was to him, raised up, saying that he was shot in the neck, and called for Colonel Stafford to turn over his command. He crawled over the dead, the ditch being three deep, about twenty feet to where Colonel Stafford was. His staff officers started to carry him to the rear, but he re- ceived another shot, and directly the third, which killed him in- stantly. Colonel Stafford was dead in the pile, as the morning light disclosed, with his feet wedged in at the bottom, with other dead across and under him after he fell, leaving his body half standing, as if ready to give command to the dead!

By that time but a handful of us were left on that part of the line, and as I was sure that our condition was not known, I ran to the rear to report to General John C. Brown, commanding the division. I met Major Hampton, of his staff, who told me that General Brown was wounded, and that General Strahl was in command. This assured me that those in command did not know the real situation,