The Worthington advance., 1876-06-29
STORY OF THE WAR.
Saved by 4 Corpse-A Thrilling Incident lin
the Assault Of Port Hudson.

at Port Hudson in June, 1868. Our ar
my invested that formidable strong
hold, hardly second in strength to
Vicksburg above, and three weeks of:
sharpsho0ting and bombarding passed
and found us still outside the cita-
del, suffering from intense heat and
disease. Then followed the disas-
trous Sunday assault on the 18th, in
which, from daylight to dark, half the
Army, in two columns, struggled to
penetrate the defenses. and was hurled
back witha loss of hundreds, in killed
and wounded. After that, almost
whole month of mining, cannonading,
sharpshooting, and starving was re.
qulred to bring the gallant defenders
to capitulation and surely there was
not a soldier, in our own sadly thinned
army left to witness the surrender
who did not experience what Sir WAL
ter Scott calls
the stern joy which warriors feel
In toemen worthy of their STEEL"
The Corporal was brave, sturdy
boy of twenty, short and stubby in fig-
ure, but with boldness and resolution
enough inside him for three of his ma.
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 out the ranks, and our giants
of six feet four, five, and six were few
enough. So the Colonel began to act
on the principle 1.-THE best soldiers for
the cOlor-guard - and none better
We to be found than this Corporal.
He had been in the color guard three
months at the time of this dreadful
assault, and was with it all through
that historic day. Hard enough did
the brave color-guard fare in that
fight. The battalions in front of us
were urged one after another up
against the almost perpendicular forti.
fication, where they melted away be-
meath the rifles of the defenders like
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 f1aunt-
ed in the very faces of the enemy, and
carried as far as the foot of man could
reach beneath the enfilading fire of
round balls and buckshot that wither.
ed away our battalion. I was borne
from that angle of death quite early in
the day with 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 a continual rush of our blue
clad boys, with bayonets fixed and
yells of encouragement, up against
that impossible wall; continued
squirt 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 incumbcred with dead. dy-
ing, and wounded thus the bloody
and useless work went on till night,
when our columns were withdrawn
!, call that was left of them''- and the
ill-starred assault was over.
To return to our story. The muster.
of the next morning showed that ev-
cry one of the color-guard was kill.
ed, wounded, or missing. The color
bearer was shot dead as soon as he
came under fire; the Corporal who
took the flag from his dead hand was
badly wounded, and in succession every
man of the six was struck down, and
the flag was rescued from the very
muzzles of the Confederate muskets
by gallant private, who dashed up
through the storm of fire and seized it
from the ground where it lay, with
corpses piled all about and upon it.
Three OF the wounded color-guard
were brought from the field two 9TH
ers were known to be dead, and it was
not doubted at the time that our Cor
poral was also killed. 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 pass
ed to other hands, which he never
would have permitted unless badly
hurt, and nothing had been seen nor
heard of him since.
A truce was agreed upon the second
day after the fight, and three hundred
dead bodies, blackened beyond recogni.
tiOn by the fierce sun of that latitude,
were buried together in the soldiers
grave. The missing were all supposed
to be among them, and the Corporal
was reported dead, with many others
who were never recognized.
But the siege dragged it's slow length
along, and the capitu!ation car,e at
last, on the 8th of July. And much
to the surprise and delight of his CON-
rades, the Corporal was found alive
and we'll in the hands of the enemy,
and was released by the surrender,
with a few others. He at once re-.
counted his adventures, which l will
present in the third person. The ball
! that prostrated him before the works
had merely cut the scalp along the top
of his head, producing plentiful effu-
sion of blood, and knocking him sense.
less but causing no injury beyond this:
| He lay unconscious for a time, and
awoke to find himself lying fiat on his
back, his face burned to blister by
the sun, and the air all about him still
ringing with the noises of battle. He
heard the voices of the officers rallying
the men in the hollow below, out of
sight, and presently several companies
charging up the hill, and again the
musketry opened holly from the works.
He had not dared to stir lest he should
be observed by some watchful con-
federate and shot but as the advanc.
ing troops rushed over him with shout
and cry an officer threw up his arms
and fell directly upon the wounded
sufferer, his life-bl0od spouting in his
face. The assault failed, as did every
i