From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign: A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier SawDame, William Meade
History
From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign: A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier Saw
Dame, William Meade
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate
As the Brigades of Field's division, that followed the Texans, went in,
a little incident took place, which illustrated the irrepressible spirit
of fun which would break out everywhere, and which we often laughed at
afterwards. General Anderson's Brigade was ahead, followed hard by
Benning's Brigade, gallant Georgians all, and led by Brigadiers, of whom
nothing better can be said, than that they were worthy to lead them.
Among the men General Anderson had somehow got the soubriquet of "Tige"
and General Benning enjoyed the equally respectful name of "Old Rock."
On this occasion, Anderson was ahead, and as he moved out of sight into
the woods, his men began to yell and shout like everything. One of
Anderson's men, wounded, blood dropping from his elbow and running down
his face, was coming out, when he met General Benning, at the head of
his column, pushing in as hard as he could go. As this fellow passed
him, taking advantage of his wound to have a little joke, he pointed to
the woods in front and called out to the General, "Hurry up 'Old Rock,'
'Tige' has treed a pretty big coon he's got up there; you'd better hurry
up or you won't get a smell." The brave old Benning, already hurrying
himself nearly to death, flashed around on the daring speaker, and saw
at once the streaming blood--"Confound that fellow's impudence," said
the disgusted General. "I wish he wasn't wounded, if I wouldn't fix
him." The fellow well knew that he could say what he pleased to anybody
with that blood-covered face.
I think it was about eleven or twelve o'clock we heard that General
Longstreet was badly wounded, and soon after he was brought to the rear,
near our guns. With several of the others I went out and had some words
with the men who were taking him out. To our grief, we heard them say,
that his wound was very dangerous, probably fatal. He had fallen, up
there in the woods, on the battle front, fighting his corps, in the full
tide of victory. He had broken and doubled up Hancock's Corps, and
driven it, with great slaughter back upon their works at the Brock road,
and in such rout and confusion, that, as he said, he thought he had
another "Bull Run" on them. And if he could have forced on that assault,
and gotten fixed on the Brock road, it is thought that Grant's army
would have been in great peril. But, just in the thick of it, he was
mistaken, while out in front in the woods, for the enemy, and shot, by
his own men. His fall was in almost every particular just like
"Stonewall" Jackson's, in that same wilderness, one year before. Both
were shot by their own men, at a critical moment, in the midst of
brilliant success, and in both cases their fall saved the enemy from
irretrievable disaster. Longstreet's fall checked the attack, which
after an inevitable delay of some hours, was resumed. But the enemy
seeing his danger had time to recover, and make disposition to meet it.
="Windrows" of Federal Dead=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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