452 NortH Caroutina Troops, 1861-65.

be in command and demanded that if he proposed to surren-
der he should lay down his arms.

He came to the front saying: ‘Wait a moment!”

Kelly replied: “No, sir! lay down your arms instantly,
or | will fire upon you,” and turned to give his command, but
before he could give the command ready, the enemy poured
upon us a terrific fire, with a loud exclamation: “You are
firing upon your friends.” Having discovered that no friends
were in advance, but that it was a most treacherous act on the
part of the enemy, firing was continued with vigor. A deadly
fire was, and had been ever since we came within range,
poured into our ranks by the foe.

After a desperately contested fight from 3:30 p. m. to
nearly nightfall, we succeeded in gaining the hill from which
the enemy made three or four unsuccessful attempts to dis-
lodge us by assault. However, owing to the conformation of
the ground, the Fifty-eighth North Carolina was exposed to
a galling fire from the front and on both flanks, the left flank-
ing company being within ten or twelve feet of the enemy. In
this action the regiment lost about half of its numbers, by
official report of Colonel Kelly, commanding the brigade.
Company A, Captain Toby, started on the charge with thirty-
four muskets and reached the top of the hill with only twelve,
losing twenty-two. In conjunction with Colonel R. C. Trigg,
Fifty-fourth Virginia,, commanding another brigade, we cap-
tured two regiments of the enemy, which surrendered to Col-
onel Trigg during the temporary absence of Colonel Kelly,
commanding our brigade. As the column commenced
moving with the prisoners a volley was fired into our ranks
causing a good deal of confusion, it then being dark.
Early in the action Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Kirby,
while gallantly cheering his men, fell pierced by four bul-
lets. Major Dula was wounded early in the engagement.
Vol. 51, Official Records Union and Confederate Armies,

p. 441 Colonel Palmer, the only field officer with the reg-
iment, was here wounded, but still continued in com-
mand, with his senior Captain, Isaac H. Bailey, to aid him
as Major and Lieutenant-Colonel, after which Captain
Bailey fell almost mortally wounded, left leg broken, shot

Firry-E1gHtH ReEq@imMent. 453

through the right side and one ear almost severed from
his head Thirteen commissioned officers, including the
Adjutant, had been killed and wounded; two-thirds of the
right flanking company, Captain Toby’s, having been killed
and wounded, and about seven-tenths of the left flanking
company, Captain Bailey’s.

Arrangements having been made to replenish our supply
of ammunition, we went into bivouac and rested for the night,
on the hill which the Fifty-eighth, together with the remain-
der of the brigade, had so gallantly won, fighting against a
superior force, posted in an apparently impregnable position.
We moved steadily forward, beat and captured many of the
enemy, and slept in his “stronghold.” Whether you may call
it whipping them or not, there was not a Federal to be found
within thirteen miles of us by next morning who was at all
able to get away.

The roll of honor of the regiment at this battle published
in general orders, was as follows:

Company A, Sergeant Wm. A. Vance; Company B, Pri-
vate William F. Bradshaw; Company OC, Sergeant John
Hughes; Company D, Private Braxton Cox; Company E,
Private, W. N. Pender (killed); Company G, Private C.
Gentry; Company F, Private George Jarrett; Company H,
Private W. P. Bumgarner; Company I, Sergeant John Egg-
ers (killed) ; Company K, Sergeant P. H. Duncan; Company
L, Private M. Harrel.

As all of the Fifty-eighth North Carolina did their duty so
well it seems useless to make particular mention of any one;
yet, I cannot refrain mentioning in a special manner Ebbin
Childs, Colonel Palmer’s orderly, whose smooth girlish face
I see before me now, and whose bright sword flashed for the
last time in the rays of the setting sun, as he fell within
twenty steps of the enemy’s line. His beardless face ablaze
with the animation of battle, and his youthful figure trans-
formed into a hero’s statue. The dry parched earth of Snod-
grass Hill was never reddened with nobler blood, and a braver
man or boy never died. The regiment marched with the
army from Chicamauga to Missionary Ridge.

From April to July, 1864, the regiment was in A. W. Rey-