The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-02-09
SAVED BY A CORPSE
BY JAMES FRANKLIN Fits.

that formidable stronghold, hardly
second in strength to Vicksburg above,
and three weeks Of sharpshooting and
bombarding passed, and found us still
outside the citadel, suffering from in
tense heat and disease. Then followed
the disastrous Sunday assault of the
18th, in which, from daylight to dark,
half the army in two columns struggled
to penetrate the defenses, and was hurled
back with a loss of twelve hundred in
killed and wounded. After that, al
most whole month of mining, cannon
aiding, sharpshooting and starving was
required to bring the gallant defenders
to capitulation; and surely there was
not soldier in our own sadly thinned
army left to witness the surrender who
did not experience what Sir Walter
Scott calls
the stern JOY which warriors feel
In foemen worthy OF their steel"
Jackson Wells, the hero of this ad-
venture, was a corporal of the color
guard o: my regiment, a brave, sturdy
boy of twenty, short and stubby in fig
ure, but with boldness and resolution
enough inside him for three Of his
stature. Tall soldiers for the color
guard" was the principle with US when
we first entered the service; but some
months OF active service, with the raw
ages Of disease and of the bullet, but
weeded out the ranks, and our giants of
six feet four, five and six, were few
enough So the colonel began to act
on the better principle, "the best SOL
diers for the color guard" and none
better could have been found than Jack,
as he was familiarity called. He had
been in the color-guard three months at
the time of this dreadful assault, and
was with it, of course, all through that
historic day.
Hard enough did the brave color
guard fare in that fight. Their place
was in the middle OF the column, and
as the battalions in front of US were
urged one after another up against the
almost perpendicular fertilization, where
they melted away like the mists of that
morning before the sun, just rising, and
our turn came, we, too, surged forward
with clamor of shouts and yells, right
up the rocky face of the hill, over the
stumps and rocks and into the ditch.
The colors were Haunted in the very
face of the enemy and carried as far as
the foot Of man could reach beneath
the enflading fire of round balls and
buckshot that withered away our bat
talon.
was borne from that angle Of death
quite early in the day, with a shot
through the body; but the impression
of the battle scene that photographed
itself in my mind will describe the
whole days work. 1t was constant
rush of our blue-clad boys, with bayo-
nets fixed, and yelis of defiance, up
against that impossible wall, without
the means at hand for an escalade; a con-
tinual squirt of flashing fire through the
gray mist from the works, and the in
cessant cracking report Of muskets, and
sharp kissing of the deadly missiles
the ground in front strewn and encum-
bered with the dead, dying and wound
ed-and thus the bloody and useless
work went on till night, when our
columns, what was left of them, with
drew, and the ill-starred assault was
over
The muster of the next morning
showed that every man of the color
guard was killed or wounded ! The
color bearer was shot dead as soon as he
came under fire; the corporal who took
the flag from the dead hand was
badly wounded and in succession every
man of the six was struck down, and
the flag was rescued from the very muz-
zles of the Confederate muskets, by a
gallant private who dashed up through
a very hell of fire, and seized it from
the ground where it lay, with corpses
piled all about and upon it.
Two or three of the wounded color
guard were brought away; two Others
were known to be dead and it was sup
posed that all but these two had perish
ed on the field Of honor. A truce was
agreed upon the second day after the
fight and some five hundred bodies,
blackened by exposure to the fierce sun
of that latitude, were buried together
in the soldiers grave. 1t was not
doubted at the time that corporal Wells
was among them. He had been seen
TO fall as he caught up the flag and
waved it over his head, with cry OF
encouragement-the staff had passed to
other hands, which he never would have
permitted unless badly hurt-and moth
ing had been seen or heard of him since.
Poor Jack! There were brave fellows
and good fellows enough to cry after that
dreadful Sunday; but no more honest
tears were shed than those that fell Tor
you. ,,
The siege dragged its slow length
along, and the capitulation came at last,
with the 9th of July. The ceremony
was over, the arms grounded, and our
men had begun to examine with natural
interest and curiosity the defences that
had held them at bay for six weeks
when. to the astonishment and delight
of his comrades. Corporal Wells sud
denly made his appearance, A shout
Of welcome greeted him, and crowd
quickly gathered about him with eager
nuestions and salutations, while each
hand was seized by half a dozen at the
same time. g.. ~, g,
abe hanged if | believe it is Jack
one Of them said. Let me pinch you,
old fellow. and see if there's solid flesh
on YOU, or if it's nothing but ghost GOV,
ering. Why, blast it, man, didn we
bury you over in the ditch yonIder, aI !1
the battle with some hundreds OF o'h-