The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-05-28
HOW Senator Norwood Snatched Ben Butler
Bald.headed.

How Senator Norwood Snatcled Ben Butler
Bald.headed.
We make the following extracts from the
remarkable speech of Senator Norwood, of
Georgia. on Civil Rights. Criticisipg Ben.
Butler'sspeech in the House of Representative,
he said:
The Republican party has often assured us
that in the late war "the colored troops fought
nobly," and the Senator from New Jersey re-
peated the declaration in our hearing on yes
terday. 1t is true, that interviewer with the
dreadful realities of that struggle, there is much
of fiction and romantic episode; many imagin-
ary instances of inspiring heroism, displayed
by the coored troops. Fact and fiction are
lamentably mingled in inextricable confusion.
But there is one exceptionable instance of dar-
ing and of death, and so notably established on
the testimony Of single eyewitness, that the
Senate must remember it, and it is worthy of
recounting, even in this august presence. lsee
that the quick perception and historic learning
of this body have already anticipated my dis
covery, and would even now forego the thrill
ing narration, but for the fear that some future
Munchausen might charge me with prejudice
against the objects ofthe judiciary Committees
special devotion, should 1 decline to furnish so
valuable contribution to his peculier style
and school OF history.
refer, as you know, to the Balaklava charge,
made by the colored troops, at the witching
hour of dawn, on empty stomachs-bayonets Fix
ed, nipples uncovered-and under command OF
a general of renown, on the 29th of September,
1864 at New Market Height? The historian,
who was the general then commanding, and
who seems to have been the only survivor of
those colored troops-tells us the story with
charming simplicity and with the eloquence of
unbridled fancy. He says, that being himself
in the rear, where he intended to remain, and
wholly uncertain whether the charge would be
feebly to the front or with frantic heroism to
the rear, he ordered, as precaution for per-
sonal security, the nipples of the guns to be
uncapped, and offering up the prayer of Falstaf,
"God, keep lead out Of me, he gave the order,
"Chargew Laughter.
He says that there fell, within a parallelo-
gram Just ten feet wide and 800 yards in length,
the exact number 543 of his colored associates,
or one man to every twenty and three-tenths
inches; that as soon as they fell, mounted on his
fiery Pegasus, like feathered or Harry" Mer-
curry, he marched solitary and alone to one end
of that slaughtered heap, and fixing one eye
weepingy pendent over the dead, and cooking
the other fercely on the enemy-the one tear
full as Niobe's, the other glowing like fiery
parallelogram, over that hecatomb of his COM
panions to the farther end-his horse mean
while dancing a minuet in the benevolent
endeavor to find ground on which to plant its
reverental feet.
This was an exploit worthy Of deifcation.
Pity it is, it had not been performed in the
pre- -Homeric or Hesiodic age, as that genera
ton, so appreciatve of horse gymnastics would
have deitied and translated the heroic actor,
and he would now be enjoying the beattude
of hero worship in the constellation of Aries or
Taurus or, happier STILL he and that horse
might now be bright particular constellation
in themselves, under the proper name OF
Equus- -anthropos, which lovers, at parting
would designate to gaze upon at the tender
hour "when twilight dews are falling fast,
and renew their VOWS of devotion.
But why that humane general should have
ridden that tender hearted horse over the dead
bodies of his colored associates, instead of
making brilliant flank movement along that
geometric holocaust, such as only he can when
moving on custom house, | have tatigued my
imagination in vain to endeavor to discover.
Perhaps, like Mrs. Malaprop, he was trying to
ascertain the perpendicular" ofthe slaughter;
perhaps it was to accommodate the angle of his
vision; perhaps to test the sensiblities of that
horse. But conjecture is all in vain. 1t was
simply one of those direct forward movements
over the bodies of ones friends, so often wit
messed in political strategy, and never known
in military tactics, that it must remain moral
wonder until lapse of time and oft repeating
shall consecrate it as a truth, or until some
cruel Gdipus shall rise to solve the riddle and
destroy its artful inventor.
But gallant as was that fatal charge, and
heroic and solemn as was that perilous explicit,
l. o1t in nf a
sublime sequel to this military evolution as
given in the simple story Of this historian.
He says that having finished that horse
couranto-consisting of 4 coupee, then high
step, then balance-he sounded a solemn
halt, faced mournfuly about, fixed his eyes
again as already described, gave the order,
"Attention, General I" and in chronic absence
of the Bible, drew from his holster-case
pocket edition of the Massachusetts, Pilgrims
Progress. issued under the Maine liquor law,
and kissing one end devoutly with his face
turned upward, he administered to himself
solemn, corporal and general oath, that SO
long as his surviving colored companions would
vote to make him Governor of Massachusetts,
or Representative in Congress, he would
spasmodically devote the idle moments OF the
remainder of his political and official life, IN
feeble effort to secure to them the great con-
stituional right to attend, without distinction
ofrace, color or previous condition ofservitude,"
every theatre, circus and menagerie in the
United States of America and the Territories
thereof.
He then sealed his oath by pressing his fe,.
versh lips once more to the bibulous end OF
that cherished volume, and calling in the eye
which had meanwhile stod sentinel on the enc
my he dismissed himself from the parade