Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/187

 The Pulaski Guards. 175

acted gallantly that day those previously engaged had been unable to withstand the weight of numbers thrown against them. The first stand of Jackson and his timely onset, alike checked, halted and re- pulsed the enemy, and then joined with arriving reinforcements, in driving them from the field.

Mr. Caddall calls attention to the fact that " the rebel yell " made its first appearance in the cheer of Jackson's men in their charge.

The " four deep " line of the 4th and 2yth Virginia was a forma- tion that we do not hear of on any other field. It pr.oved particu- larly fortunate and efficient on this occasion, but it escapes the notice of most historians, even of Colonel Henderson, one of the most accurate, as well as most wise, graphic and brilliant of military writers. The heaviest loss on Jackson's regiment fell upon the 2yth Virginia, which, namely, 141 killed and wounded, nineteen of whom were killed, and this gallant little regiment was afterwards called " The bloody Twenty-seventh."

JOHN W. DANIEL.

Lynchburg, Va., November 18, 1904.

THE PULASKI GUARDS.

On the 23d of April, 1861, in the old City Hall, in Richmond, " The Pulaski Guards," commanded by Captain James A. Walker, was mustered into the service of the State of Virginia by Colonel John B. Baldwin, of Staunton, inspector-general of the militia of the State.

This company, which had been organized a year or more previously, was composed of sixty strong, stalwart young men, ranging in their ages principally from eighteen to thirty years, though there were several older men who had seen service in the United States army in Mexico, and with General Albert Sidney Johnston on the Western plains. Among the veterans were R. D. Gardner, first lieutenant of the company, later noted for his cool- ness and courage in leading his regiment as lieutenant-colonel into battle; Theophilus J. Cocke, Robert Lorton, John Owens, and David Scantlon, the company's drummer.

This company, designated as " Company C," constituted a part of the newly organized 4th Regiment of Virginia infantry, under the command of Colonel James F. Preston, who had been a captain in the Mexican war. The 4th Regiment was ordered to Harper's Ferry, where it was organized into a brigade, with the 2d, 5th, 2yth