The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-07-04


lean valor. But he went bravely at the
task and laid out plan that would have
delighted beyond measure the professor of
q graduating class in military school.
He assigned to Marmaduke's 5000 cavalry
the capture of the Brighter hill redoubts, to
Prices 5000 the Graveyard hill breast
works and redoubt, and to Fagan's 1000
the line on Hindman hill. These positions
the troops were to carry with a rush at
daylight, turn the captured cannon on the
large work, Fort Curtis, nearest the town,
lombard and carry that, and all else was at
their mercy. And had Gen. Holmes and his
people known the situation il the enemy's
camp they might have been as highly elated
over the prospect before them as they
were with their mastery plan. There were
about 1900 Union soldiers distributed
around Helena, but their long line was
exposed to attack about equally at all
points,
There were six roads from the interior to
the town, and the defenders, being ignorant
of the particular one or ones by which the
assailants would move to the attack, were
bound to look sharp to them ALL For an
other thing there were no trained artillery
men to handle the guns in the works, and
the duty was in the hands of several COM
panies of the Thirty third Missouri infant
ry. The remaining infantry was divided
up into detachments, so that no regiment
intact, much less brigade, could be called
together at given point in the emergen-
cies to follow. There were many things in
their favor to counterbalance all the cir
cumstances, but these the Confederates did
not know, and promptly at daylight on In
dependence Day each of the three col
umns, Marmaduke's, Prices and Fagan's,
told off in storming parties and reserves,
moved against the batteries. and intrench-
ments that lay across their paths.
Fagan's Arkansans found themselves
confronted by the rife pits and redoubt on
Hindman hill, with only their muskets to
aid them. More than mile back their ar
tillery had been blocked by INSTRUCTED
roads, and on both sides of the highway
steep ravines made the route across lots
impossible for cannon. The officers had
been compelled to dismount and leave
their horses behind, and the men, with
free use Of limb, barely made their way
through the labyrinth in time to meet the
engagement. They were the first to open
the ball, and as soon as the struggling line
could pull itself together moved forward
in battle order. Here gorge interviewed,
there steep hillside doomed before them
and the thicket and trenches in front were
alive with sharpshooting rifiemen One
by one, however the rifle pits and breast
works were yielded to the Arkansans until
they were under the guns of Battery D on
Hindman hill. But they were likewise
abreast of Battery c on Graveyard hill,
and the Missouri boys at the guns there
raked the line of the charging column
lengthwise. For Graveyard hill had not
fallen, Price was behindhand in his assault,
and the plan SO mastery in theory was
working admirably the wrong way. The
Union folks could play the bills against
one another, too, and Fagan's Confederates
on Hindman hill were targets for The guns
intact on Graveyard hill
Prices division was slow at getting to
work because it comprised two brigades,
whose movements were to be timed to-
gether. They, too, found the roads blocked
with fallen trees and were obliged to aban-
| don their cannon on the march. Their as
sault was met with grape and shell from
| Battery c, and as they pressed over the
| front rife pits the guns of Battery D, on
| Hindman hill, raked their lines as the guns
| of G raked Fegan's. Their sharpshooters,
however, stole up behind logs and stumps
| and picked off the Union cannoneers and
| about Z o'clock the battle flag of Prices di-
vision f1oated over the Graveyard hill re-
doubt A handful of expert gunners, who
| had been in the front rank of the stormers,
| threw aside their muskets and rushed to
the captured cannon to turn them on the
works in the rear and upon the town, as
had been planned But the Missouri boys
had been too clever for them and had
| plugged the bores with shot and carried
| away the worms and primers, leaving the
| pieces worthless to the captors.
Meanwhile Fort Curtis made use of it's
long range siege guns, and shelled the cap
tured hill and redoubt, and the gunboat
Tyler did the same. Price ordered an ad-
vance upon the rear of the Hindman hill
battery and upon Fort Curtis, but his
troops mistakingly passed them and dashed
on to the town. Pagan took advantage of
the turn of affairs on Graveyard hill and
| put his men to the assault of Battery D.
By that time it was nearly the middle of
the forenoon and his men were painting in
the fierce heat and suffering for lack of
water. They made gallant attempt, but
scores of them were shot down and the
survivors were captured at the works.
The sharpshooters in their own lines fired
ut them to prevent them becoming trophies
to grace an enemy's triumph
On Fighter hill Gen. Marmaduke's Con-
federates had also been checked by trees
fallen across the road The horsemen quit
their saddles and made the attack on foot.
| dragging cannon to the front by hand.
They assailed Battery A, but were repulsed,
| and at the same moment were treated to q
counter attack in the flank and barely got
their cannon safely off the field. Before
high noon Prices men were expelled from
Graveyard hill and retreat was sounded
all along the line. At that moment the
garrison at Vicksburg were prisoners of
war and the besiegers rejoicing in Fourth
| of July triumph. So Helena would have
been useless to the Confederates had they
| taken it, and it cost them nearly 1900 men
| to not take it. GEORGE L. kILaiER
| How He vvas Admitted.
| According to the Troy Press the late
| Patrick Henry CoWea, prominent Sara