Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-01-28
IRONTON. MO- THURSDAY. JANUARY

hOAh1uSs AAAiSAAS ih Conp1 sAO AAo
thing was to get our dinner and sup
per at the same time. This through
with, we attended to the sad duty
of burying our dead comrades, each
company burying their own dead. We
inferred our comrade about IL O'Clock
that. night, with the honors Of war,
and as the report of the volley sound
ed out on the still night air, we with
es, and turned from the lonely grave.
The deceased's name was John C. Por-
ter. He was good soldier and fine
young man, had neither father nor
mother, and the only relative left to
mourn for him was a single sister.
The wounded were placed in hos
pital tent. Two out of the three of
our company who were wounded got
well and served their time out. The
other one was sent home, but he be-
came deranged and died.
The next day (22d) we received or
ders to take three days. rations and be
ready to move by eight o'clock. About
that hour the regiment left camp, leav-
ing one of our companies as camp
guard, the Mississippi and Baltimore
regiments doing likewise. We march
ed straight to the tannery to relieve
the 4th Infantry regulars. Here we re-
mained all day listening to Worth's
fearful fighting in the rear or northern
part of Monterey, on the Saltillo road.
While we did no fighting at all, Worth
was closely engaged nearly the entire
day. Late in the evening Gen. Quit
man came to turn the command of his
brigade over to Col. Jefferson DAVIS,
as Gen. Butler had been wounded the
day before and was compelled to leave
the field, and Quitman was to succeed
him. We saw but little more of Quit
man during the balance of the fight.
That night was spent in our tannery
quarters, and we feasted on salt pork
and hard tack, without coffee. The
next morning we were ordered out and
up the lane heretofore mentioned.
This was the last and hardest days
fighting at Monterey. From early
morn till late in the evening our bri-
gade was hotly engaged. In fact, it
seemed that the whole army was up
to their eyes in the fight. We went
from street to street bursting in doors
and windows, with anything we could
lay hold of. Some.of the houses were
crowded with women and children,
who would fall on their knees and beg
for mercy, and SO far as I knew, none
of them were in any way molested, on
ly badly frightened, and SO we pressed
on until we reached broad street with
high cemented walls on each side Up
to this time we had only Mexicans,
who had nothing but small arms to
ed by artillery from the strongest
works in or around the city, known as
the "Black Fort.o AS soon as we got
to the mouth of this wide lane-for it
looked more like a lane than street
we received a volley from every gun in
the fort, but luckily for US twas the
same old story-"the range was too
high.n Here we had to halt, as we
could not charge and take such strong
fort with our now weakened and scat
tered forces. A second volley was fir
ed, which did us considerable damage,
and we were ordered to lie down on
eiher side of the street against the
stone wall. There we suffered terribly.
Here 1t it was that Lieut.-Col. Watson,
of the Baltimore Battalion, was struck
and instantly killed, as was also Capt.
Allen, of the First Tennessee. Lieut.
Col. McClurg Of the Mississippi. and
Maj. Alexander of the First Tennessee
both received dangerous
wounds. And many others OF rank
and file were killed and wounded. Col.
Davis, who was now onr Brigade Com
mander, ordered us to fall back behind
some houses. We started in run and
through perfect shower of grape.shot
we reached shelter, where we were
safe for theStime being, but our dead
were left in the street; the wounded
were taken up as fast as they fell. Ev-
en- the bodies of Col. Watson and Capt.
Allen were suffered to remain where
they fell till night, when in the dark
ness they were brought to the house
or houses we had taken shelter in.
Shortly after we got to our place of
safety, orders came from either Quit
man or Taylor to halt where we were
and hold the places we had taken. At
this time the battle was raging all ov-'
er the city, and it seemed as II the
whole city was on fire. Taylor, with
the Regulars, was working his way to-
ward the 'sBlack Fort,n on our right,
and as we found out afterwards was
only two blocks from US at the time
we retreated. Night closed the battle.
We posted strong guards as soon as
darkness set III, and detail was made
to bring in our dead; each regiment
taking care of their own. We lost ten
nriyates and two officers. The Missis-
sippi Regiment Jared worse, as they
were in the rear when the "Black
Fortn let out upon US, and therefore
got the benefit of the overshooting.
The few who had fallen in the fore part
of the day had already been removed;
but don't think more than four or
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