Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/224

 218 Southern. Historical Society Papers.

of battle at any time from its formation co the time the charge was made, and was not in the captured works until after he (Weisiger) had been wounded, and that this claim was only set up by General Mahone's friends, General Mahone had not made a statement setting out in detail his personal movements on the morning of the battle, but in 1892 he made a statement of this character, which was pub- lished and from which the following extracts are taken:

MANY FEDERAL FLAGS.

"Arrived at the mouth or terminus of the first mentioned ravine or gulch, the lieutenant, pointing across to the slope of the hill on the east side of this branch, a few yards away, said to me: ' If you will go up that slope there, you can see the Yankees.' Moving quickly to this slope, I found myself in full view of the portion of the salient which had been blown up, and of that part of the works to the north of the salient, and saw that they were crammed with Federal soldiers and thickly studded with Federal flags.

"For the moment I could scarcely take in the reality, and the very danger to which I was at the time exposed came to my relief and bade me stand still, as the surest course of personal safety I did not think they would be so likely to fire upon a single man and so I stood where I could keep one eye on the adversary whilst I di- rected my own command, which every moment was in fearful peril if the enemy should advance whilst the two brigades were moving, and the larger part of them were still in the covered way.

" A moment's survey of the situation impressed me with the be- lief, so crowded were the enemy and his flags eleven flags in less than one hundred yards that he was greatly disordered but present in large force. At once I sent back to my line in the trenches, full two miles away; for the Alabama Brigade to be brought me quickly by the route by which the two brigades had come, then indicating to Captain Girardey the ground on which I desired the Virginia Brigade formed facing the retrenched cavalier of the salient.

" Occupying the position heretofore described, and from which, as heretofore stated, I was able to command a full view of that por- tion of the works occupied by the enemy, and at the same time to intimately direct the movement of my own command, I spoke words of encouragement and duty to the men as they filed by on their way to the position which had been indicated to Captain Girardey for them to take for the attack.