New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-02
SAVED BY A CORPSE.
A Thrilling Incident in the Assault on Port
Hudsons

| sands of lust such experiences remain I'M
told, and will never be tcld; but it is onl.
| from individual examples of the kind tina
| the public are able to gauge the merits O.
the volunteers in the late war and to reacf
| any appreciation, however inadequate,
! the bravery, devotion and suffering of "tha
grand figure in our history-the American
| private soldier"
The adventure of the corporal was a
| Port Hudson in June. 1863. Our army in
vested that formidable stronghold, hardly
| second in strength to Vicksburg above, auC
three weeks of sharpshoOting and lombard
| ing passed and found US still outside thu
| citadel, suffering from intense heat anc
| disease. Then followed the disastrous Sun
| day assault of the fourteenth, in which
from daylight to dark. half the army, II
| two columns, struggled to penetrate the de-
| lenses, and was hurled back with q loss o.
| hundreds in killed and wounded. After
that, almost whole month of mining, can
| nOnading, eharpshooting, and starving was
! required to bring tie gallant defenders tt
| capitulation; and surely there was not q
| soldier in our own sadly thinned army LETT
| to witness the surrender who did not ex
| perience what Sir Walter Scott calls
60 the stern joy which warriors feel
In fOemen worthy Of THEIR steel"
The corporal was brave, sturdy boy Of
with bOldness and resolution enough inside
him for three of his stature. Tall soldiers
| for the color guard" was the requirement
when we first entered the service; but some
months of active service, with the ravages
of disease and the bullet, had weeded on,
the ranks, and our giants of six feet four
| five and six we're few enough. So the colonel
began to act on the principle ''the best sol
diers for the color guard" and none better
we're to be found than this corporal He
had been in the color guard three months
was with it all through that historic day.
Hard enough did the brave color guard fare
in that fight. The battalion in front of us
we're u:ged one after another up against the
almost perpendicular Notifications, where
they melted away beneath the rifles of the
defenders ike the mists of that morning
before the sun that was just rising. Our
turn came, and we, too, surged forward
with a 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 faces of
the enemy, and carried as far as the foot of
man could reach below the enfladirg fire
OF round balls and buckshot that withered
away our battalion. | was borne from that
engle of death quite early in the day with
shot through the body, but the impress
sion OF the battle scene that Photographic
itself in my mind will describe the whols
days work. 1t was continual rush of our
blue-clad Toys, with bayonets fixed and
yells of encouragement, up against that i'm
passable wall; Q continued spurt of flashes
through the gray mist from the works, and
the incessant cracking report of muskets,
and the sharp Kissing of deadly missiles
the ditch filled and the ground in front
strewn and incumbered with dead, dying
and wonderland thus the bloody and
useless work went on till night, when our
columns were withdrawn-"all that was
left of them"-and the iil-starred assault
was over.
Merely to show that the incident am
about to relate was not an exec ptional one
in the experiences of that day of accumu.
lated horrors, quote from an article which
appeared in the GALAXY Of September -,
1866"
There was no bravery more conspicuous,
nor were any sufferiDgs more fearful, nor
any endurance stouter, during and after
this assault, than those of Brigadier Gen.
in Congress from the Mil waukee district of
Wisconsin, who led mis- brigade in charge
across field at another point of attack.
Struck down by q mimic ball, which shat.
tered his leg. he lay on the field after his
command was compelled to fall back, for
fourteen hours, most of the time in the
clustering sun, exposed to a continual fire
from the works, and enduring such torments
from thirst, heat and swarms of insects
as can scarcely. be comprehended.
A full dozen of the brave fellows
of this brigade were killed or wounded
while trying to bring him water, and
finally, after nlghttall, he was carried from
the field more dead than alive. His leg was
atterward amputated. 1t would be hard to
conceive OF more acute fortunes than the
wounded in this assault endured, who were
compelled to lie where they fell until dark
ness shielded the succOring parties sent from
our lines Death on the battlefield in such
situation is sternly stripped of all its 70.
Inc necessity of such minor annals "a
tnese TO preserve for posterity the practical
and interesting details of the war will he at
once seen when We learn that the compre
nenslVe histories dismiss this bloody and
Inc ffectnal days work with q few brief
lines. Thus Harper's History of the Great
page 414, has only to say of it:
After several days bombardment a
second assault was made on Port Hudson.
me chief point of attack was the north
easterly corner of the enemy's line of in
trenchments. The result Of the ashanti
was nearer approach to the works and on
lhe left, while Grover and Weitzel made
Inc more palpable attack on the right. Cen
eral Dwight succeeded in carving and
holding an eminence which Commanded a
vital point in the defenses known "a the
citadel. But what had been thus gained
aad cost |OO more men, and no subseOnent
assaults were made. Among the wounded
was General Paine" 0"
The magnitude of the vhola snb;act
makes this brevity unavoidable in the his
,orlan, but such examples as this will give
IS better understanding of q familiar
anecdote of Napoleon. After his frat
campaign, when his renown already
'lled all Europe, some civilian was con
him that whatever might han
zen IN the future his place in history was
ecure. "Pshaw," was the impatient re-
ponse, "all this is nothing. If l should
lie tomorrow all that have done would |
'e compressed into two pages of history"
10 return to our story. The muster of |
ne next morning showed that every one of |
ne color guard was killed, wounded or
missing. The color bearer was shot dead |
q soon as he came under fire; the cor.
oral who took the flag from his dead hand
vas badly wounded, and in succession
very man OF the six was struck down, and
ne nag was rescued from the very muzzles
t the Confederate muskets by gallant
rlvate, who dashed up through the storm
ire, and seized it from the grpuna where
Inwx