Today in History:

953 Series I Volume XI-I Serial 12 - Peninsular Campaign Part I

Page 952 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN, VA. Chapter XXIII.

three last-mentioned re oiments having been necessarily separated from tlieiii soon after they went into action. I know that they ~vent in gal- laiit ly, aiid I know, too, from evidence more l)owerf ul than any other the statement of their lossesthat they fought hard and long. For their detailed movements I respectful1~ refer yon to the reports of their commanders. Being completely exhausted myself and the regiments of the brigade l)eing exhausted and cut up and to some extent scattered, and the ground being held by fresher troops, I proceeded as the evening closed in to collect them together at a point in the rear I)ortioml of the clear- ing to the left of the road. After night we were ordered by the major- general commanding the division to take position in the woods in rear of the clearing, where we spent the night. During a considerable portion of the forenoon of Sunday, June 1, the brigade was under arms and in momentary expectation of being engaged in the action which was going on, but it was not brought under fire. The officers of General Featherstons staff accompanied me on the field and rendered me most important services. I eannot forbear expressing my especial sense of the coolness and good conduct of Capt. G. P. Foote, assistant adjutant-general, who was by my side the whole day and at a late hour had his horse killed under him. Lieutenant Haley, aide-de-camp, had his horse killed nuder him early in the action, and a few minutes after, while in the act of taking the gun and accouterments of a dead soldier to go into the fight on foot, received himself a severe wound in the face. Maj. I. M. Partridge, actiiig commissary of subsistence, and Mr. A. N. Parker, volunteer aide, also remidered me great assistam~e and were frequently un(ler heavy fire. The courier })arty was also much exposed and acte(l well. Sergt. iR. A. Best, of Company D, Fourth North Carolina State Troops, their leader, had two horses shot under him. I must ask the attention of the general to the remarkably good con- duct ot the regimental commanders of time brigade imm this affair. Col. Levi B. Smith, Twenty-seventh Georgia, approved himself a soldier amid leader of the noblest qualities, He received about the mid- (lie of time afternoon a l)aillful wound in the thigh, but remnaimied with his regiment for at least an hour and a half afterward, whemi he was comnpelled from weakmmess to leave the field. While in the act of leav- ing his horse was shot nuder him. Both before amid after his retirememmt Lieut. Col. Charles T. Zachry acted in the coolest amid best manner. Col. William Smith, Forty-ninth Virginia, was conspicuous, as I can testify fromn my own observation, for coolness and courage. his ex- posure of his persomi was perhaps almost a fault. Maj. Bryan Grimes, commanding Fourth North Carolina State Troops, Ie(l his regiment in the thickest of the fight. Ilis horse was shot umuder him muot more than 100 yards directly in front of the enemys redoubt. After three color-bearers of his regiment had been killed he bore in his on-mm hands and brought out of action its tattered but honored flag. Capt. John N. Wilcox, Twenty-eighth Georgia, left in commuand of his regimnent. in consequemice of Lieut. Col. James G. Cain having been thrown fromn his horse and taken sick SOOII after the commencement of the engagement, and led it with coolness and gallamutry until its with- drawal.


Page 952 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN, VA.Chapter XXIII.