Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 30.djvu/257

 Battle of Perryville. 249-

ian faith, and while tradition recalls the faithful spirits who stood ready at any and all times with their veteran followers to give their lives for freedom, and history recounts the deeds of patriots, the name and the fame of Cleburne and Cheatham will shine.

And Hardee, conservative, gallant, soldierly, a field marshal of the South, whose genius grasped the situation at Perryville let his name be numbered among the glorious sons of the South. Can we recall the ascent of those hills of Doctor and Chaplin creeks, the storming of those batteries defended by such brigades as Gooding led, or Starkweather commanded, without a feeling of pride as Americans both ?

Let those who never faced a line of fire nor stormed a battery say they died in vain who fell on this fated field. Before such scenes of heroism those deeds of modern noteworthiness fade into insignifi- cance.

No field of the Civil war shows to the military critic a more splen- did heroism, nor to the lover of liberty a more self-sacrificing valor than these veterans of the South on that eventful day. Gooding, with his brave command, lost in killed 10 per cent, of his men and in wounded 25 per cent. perhaps the most bloody record of that day, and his witness is this: ' ' Although my men fought desperately, it was of no avail. ' '

An incident of the retreat of that old division illustrates the spirit of the command. In that desperate charge on the right of the Con- federate line a soldier still living was shot with a ram-rod; he went to the hospital, and it was still sticking through his body, and the Confederate surgeon, Dr. Frank Rice, extracted it from the soldier. As his brigades started towards Cumberland Gap the orders were strict no soldier was to leave his place in the line. He fell out of ranks with gun and cartridge box completely equipped. The field officer of the day asked him if it would not be better to march in his place in the ranks. He replied: "It would look better, but it would not feel better to me." "Have you a permit?" said the officer. At this he handed'the surgeon's certificate. "How were you wounded?" said the officer. Baring his breast and exposing the wound, he said: " It went in there," and turning his back, he said: "it stuck out there, and the surgeon pulled it out." He was ready for duty at any moment.

We have not mentioned others, brave ones, who on the Federal side on that day performed feats of valor and deserved honorable mention at the hands of their superiors; nor those on the Confederate