Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/247

 1 1, roes of J /.,.{ Hill. 287

From the beginning of the century, the French element of Charles- ton's population has been uniformly public-spirited and devoted to the best interests of city and State. The following were officers in 1861: Captain John T. Kanapaux; Lieutenants M. P. O'Connor, L. F. LeBlcux, G. W. Aimar, A. Victor Kanapaux. By assignment to special duties and other causes, changes occurred during the war, and at the date of the Honey Hill battle (1864) the following were commissioned officers: Captain John T. Kanapaux; Lieutenants, senior first, C. J. Zealy; junior first, A. Victor Kanapaux; second, T. W. Bolger.

Two guns and thirty-six men, under Lieutenant Zealy, were de- tached from Bee's Creek Battery and sent to Honey Hill. No pass- ing commendation does justice to that meritorious officer, Lieutenant Zealy, whose career in the war was marked by devotion to the cause and a cheerful and most efficient discharge of duty. If he had done no more than serve his guns in the desperate fight down the road in the morning fight near Bolan Church he would be entitled to the highest praise. He still survives; resides in Charleston, and is richly enti- tled to the "well done" of the community. The other two guns, under Sergeant Joseph Bock, acting lieutenant, remained in position at Bee's Creek, and the surplus men were equipped as infantry, un- der Lieutenant T. W. Bolger, as a support for the guns there. Cap- tain John T. Kanapaux remained in command of that post. An incident in the fight at Honey Hill in this Lafayette detachment is worth recording, showing the character and military spirit of the men. Sergeant Julius A. LePrince was at one of the guns; he was a sufferer from chills and fever, and that was the alternate day for his attack; sure enough, in the very midst of the fight the gallant ser- geant was shaking very perceptibly, and burning up with fever, but by sending spare men off to the rear, to fill his canteen with water, which he was drinking in large quantities, he kept to his gun. An officer finally noticed him and promptly said:

" Sergeant, you ought not to be here; go the rear! "

But the sergeant quietly remarked :

" If I go to the rear, shaking as I am, people might think I am scared ! ' '

He stayed by his gun until the action was over, late in the eve- ning.

My youthful friend of November 30, 1864, as modest as he was brave, who was then scarcely of military age, is now among the "Survivors" with streaks of silver in his hair; he will, I hope, ex-