“When at last what was left of the regiment reached its original position it numbered no more than a full company.  Scarcely a hundred were in line.  Over one hundred of our men and the majority of the officers were either killed or wounded.  While the lieutenant-colonel was rallying us near the battery, a shell struck a gun-carriage, hurling it against him, and he was home senseless from the field.  The command now devolved on the senior captain left unwounded.

“One of my men now said to me, ’Captain, why don’t you go to the rear?  Your face is so covered with blood that you must be badly hurt.’

“It was only at that moment that I became conscious of my wound.  In my intense anxiety about Strahan, in the effort to get my men back in something like order, and in the shock of seeing the lieutenant-colonel struck down, my mind seemed almost unaware of the existence of the body.  In the retreat I had felt something sting my hand like a nettle, and now found one of the fingers of my left hand badly shattered.  With this hand I had been wiping my brow, for it was intensely hot.  I therefore was the most sanguineous-looking man of our number.

“Of course I did not go to the rear because of a wound of so slight a nature, and my earnest hope was that reinforcements would enable us to drive the enemy back so that I could go to the spot where I had seen Strahan fall.

“What I have vainly attempted to describe occurred in less time than I have taken in telling about it.  I think it would have been much better if we had never left the line which we now occupied, and which we still held in spite of the overwhelming superiority, in numbers, of the enemy.  If, instead of wasting the morning hours, we had fortified this line, we never could have been driven from it.

“Our immediate foes, in front of us did not at that time advance much farther than the point of our repulse, and, like ourselves, sought cover from which to fire.  We now had a chance to recover a little from our wild excitement, and to realize, in a slight degree, what was taking place around us.  Information came that our corps-commander had been seriously wounded.  Our own colonel lay, with other dead officers, a little in our rear, yet in plain sight.  We could only give them a mournful glance, for the battle was still at its height, and was raging in our front and for miles to the right.  The thunder of three hundred or more guns made the very earth tremble, while the shrieking and bursting of the shells above us filled the air with a din that was infernal.

“But we had little chance to observe or think of anything except the enemy just below us.  With wolfish eyes they were watching every chance to pick off our men.  Many of our killed and wounded on the bloody declivity were in plain view, and one poor fellow, desperately hurt, would often raise his hand and wave it to us.

“Our men acted like heroes, and took deliberate aim before they fired.  When a poor fellow dropped, one of our officers picked up the rifle and fired in his place.”