48 Norto Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

commander. He had outstripped his staff officers who were
following him, but not then in sight. He halted in the rear
of the Forty-fifth Regiment, and called out, “Don’t run boys;
I will have enough men here in five minutes to eat up every
d—d one of them.” His eyes were almost green. The line
steadied and poured volley after volley into the enemy.
Presently we heard a yell up the line in our rear as we stood,
and Battle’s Brigade of Alabamians were seen coming to our
support. They ran down the line by us. We raised a yell
and dashed forward. Now, what became of Battle’s men,
whether they passed around us forming a line parallel with
the works and then charged with us, I cannot tell. I did not
then know. I only know that we went forward in a full run;
found the enemy standing where we had left our batteries;
the guns all withdrawn from their embrasures, turned upon
us, but not firing, while the infantry fired into our faces.
They stood their ground until there were but a few paces be-
tween the lines. A fine-looking Federal officer stood in the
front of their line with drawn saber, encouraging his men.
He fell dead, within a few paces of the writer, shot through
the neck. I ascertained the next morning that his name was
Colonel Huling, of the Sixth or Seventh Maine Regiment,
temporarily commanding the front brigade in this assault. He
was a brave fellow and deserved a better fate. When he fell,
his men breaking in confusion leaped over the breastworks,
and we went in near the same place we had left them. My re-
collection is that these lines were restored by our brigade, Bat-
tle’s Alabama Brigade, one or two regiments from Ramseur’s
Brigade and a part of the brigade of General R. D. Johnston.
But I remember well that a few days thereafter, we had in
the company a Richmond paper, giving an account of the
battle as communicated by an army correspondent, as having
been won and the lost line recovered by certain Virginia
brigades; this, indeed, was quite a common thing with the
Richmond papers. As we recaptured the line the brave artil-
lerymen, one company of which was the Richmond Howitz-
ers, as fine a body of men as ever wore a uniform, rushed
up with rammers in hand; wheeled the guns to their places
and commenced, pouring canister into the ranks of the re-

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Forty-Firtg REGIMENT. 49

treating foe. We then saw why it was that we had not been
fired upon by our own guns. The artillerymen had carried
away the rammers. Thus ended the bloody engagement of
10 May. The ground was covered with the dead and
wounded from both armies. The gallant Colonel Brabble, of
the Thirty-second North Carolina, of our brigade, was among
the former.

If space permitted, I would be glad here to give instances
of individual acts of heroism witnessed by me in this ‘and
subsequent engagements in this bloody angle. The morning
after this fight, I was asked by a wounded Sergeant belong-
ing to the Sixth Maine Regiment, to help him down under
the hill where he would not be exposed to the artillery fire
from his own batteries. I did so, and made him as comfort-
able as I could. I filled his canteen with water, and learned
from him the name and rank of the officer killed the evening
before. I observed among the enemy’s dead inside our lines,
what I thought was an unusual proportion of non-commis-
sioned officers. I asked this Sergeant how this happened.
He answered that the evening before, just before his brigade
led the assaulting column upon our works, that this same Col-
onel Huling addressed the regiments of the brigade; re-
minded them that during the preceding battles many com-
pany officers had been killed or permanently disabled, and
that he expected to keep an eye on the non-commissioned of-
ficers of the brigade and see to it that commissions should be
given the deserving ones. He said: “We came in front
looking for promotion, and you see the result.” He himself
had a badly shattered leg below the knee. The 11th of May
passed with nothing more than heavy skirmishing and severe
artillery firing at intervals. arly in the morning of the
11th, General Rodes placed our brigade at the right of the
division and in the space previously occupied by General
Doles. The brigade took this as a compliment, and General
Daniel, soon after the brigade was so placed, passed down
the line behind the men and said to us: “I want you boys
to remember that if the enemy come over these breastworks
today, you are to receive them on your bayonets.”

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