Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/198

190 Petersburg, where the Ninth Virginia was made a part of it. It then moved to Richmond, and then to a camp on the Williamsburg road below Richmond. It was at Seven Pines, but only slightly engaged on the second day of the battle. The brigade was at Malvern Hill and engaged in that memorable charge. Col. Hodges thus speaks of it:

"The battle of Tuesday, July i, was the most terrific that can be conceived of. My imagination never pictured anything to equal it. I lost in killed and wounded on that day about one-fourth of my regiment. They all acted nobly. Men never fought better. The battle flag of the regiment which we carried into the fight has forty-seven shot holes in it; and every man in my color guard wounded. During a charge a shell burst near me, killing two of my men, wounding Capt. Bruce so severely that he only survived twenty-four hours, wounded several others, knocked me down and burnt all of the beard off the right side of my face, scorched the sleeve of my coat from my hand up. The shock was so great that I did not recover from it for several hours."

From this description you can form some idea of that terrible battle in which our forces attempted to dislodge the enemy from the crown of Malvern Hill, defended by fifty pieces of artillery and compact lines of infantry, raking an open field of three-fourths of a mile. Brave men of this city, of my own regiment, the Ninth Virginia, poured out on the battlefield that rich blood which even at this late day brings sorrow to hearts still beating.

The Fourteenth regiment remained in the neighborhood of Shirley until Gen. McClellan embarked his forces and left for Washington. It then went to Hanover Junction, then through Louisa county and on to join Lee's army, which it did on the upper Rappahannock. It was at Second Manassas and was in the Maryland campaign.

The battle of Sharpsburg was fought on Wednesday, the 17th of September, 1862, from 3 A. M. to night. The two armies held their respective positions all the next day without firing a gun. Lee crossed the Potomac into Virginia early on the morning of the 19th. Col. Hodges writing on the 22nd of September, says that General Armistead was wounded early on the morning