Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/344

 33^! Southern Historical Society Papers.

roll was sounded, calling us to receive our baptism of blood at the ever-memorable battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks.

For eight long, consecutive hours the I2th Mississippi Regiment was under fire in the hottest and thickest of the fight, capturing the Federal fortifications and an excellent battery of artillery. But the victory was dearly won, for of the 446 men we carried into this en- gagement, 204 were killed and wounded.

Among the number was the chivalric Captain Henry Hastings, of the Claiborne Guards, killed outright as he grasped the flagstaff of our regimental colors, after five color-bearers had been shot down beneath its folds Colonel Wm. H. Taylor, by his cool, calm and collected manner, won for himself the soubriquet of the "old war horse " on that sanguinary field. Lieutenant-Colonel Harris was severely wounded in the head, and Major W. H. Lilly rendered in- dispensable assistance to Colonel Taylor in directing the movements of the regiment and assigning the companies to the position they were respectfully called upon to occupy during the engagement. It was here that the soldier-poet of the Confederacy, beholding the daring courage of the Mississippians, exclaimed:

" Twelfth Mississippi! I saw your brave columns, Rush thro' the ranks of the living and dead. Twelfth Alabama! why weep your old war-horse? He died as he wished, in the gear, at your head."

Soon after the battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, we were bri- gaded with the i6th, igth and 48th Mississippi Regiments and placed under command of Brigadier- General Featherstone. Again the long roll sounded, and we were called upon to begin the seven days' battles around Richmond. On the evening of the 26th of June, about midnight, we bivouacked upon the ground where skir- mishing had been going on during the day. Bright and early on the morning of the 2yth of June, just as I had begun to get the regi- ment in line, and while the orderly sergeant of the Natchez Fenc- cibles was calling the roll, a murderous hailstorm of bullets rained down upon us. The order was given to charge. Major Lilly was severely wounded, and Meriwether Jones, of the Claiborne Guards, a talented and promising son of old Claiborne, together with many other brave young men, were killed outright as we swept down upon the enemy's outposts with a terrible yell, forcing them to beat a hasty retreat. We kept in hot pursuit all day, passing through the