Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1892-10-15
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
THE HELENA ENGAaEMANT.


Ono of tho Last and Bloodicst Battles of
tho Civil War.
OF all the battles that were fought in
the southwest during the war, that at
Helena, Ark, on July 4, 1868, ranks as
high as any, every thing considered.
Not simply because Helena, with all its
government property was saved, but
because the confederacy on that day re-
ceived its death blow The main at
tack of the enemy was made on the Lit
'le Rock road, where they staled every
thing on enforcing an entrance. They
captured Battery G and drove the gal
liant Thirty-third Iowa from its sup
port; but when our other batteries and
infantry got cross-fire on them they
had to abandon their dearly-won prize,
for at this point they left the most Of
their men on the field. Our pickets
were driven in at $3.50 a. m. and the
fight lasted til II a. m, when the enemy
retired, wiser and considerable less in
numbers. With our little band of only
three thousand Ave hundred actually
engaged on the field, we killed, wound
ed and captured almost our equal in
numbers, and drove the enemy pell.
nell from the field, and saved those
commissaries from falling into the
hands of the enemy; and all with a
small loss in comparison to that Of the
foe.
We were not caught mapping, for we
We're in line, with stacked arms, three
mornings previous, at $3.50 o'clock, and
when the picllets We're fired on the
fourth morning, we were up and ready
for the fray, with eighty rounds to the
man to start in with, and it did not
take us long to get from camp to the
front line. From the best information
we could get from intelligent prisoners
land afterward as prisoner myself) 1
learned that we had six times our num-
Der to contend with; at least we had
the entire trans-Mississippi department
to fight They admitted that Holmes
left one-fifth of his entire division dead
and wounded on the field. About 9:30
our gallant commander came galloping
up to his headquatters on his almost ex-
hausted steed, to exchange for a fresh
one that was standing ready. The
prisoners we had captured were going
aboard the only steamer that was at
Helena that day, when the captain of
the boat informed our commander that
he could not put all those prisoners on
his ressel. The general replied:
Store them in the hull!'
When the vessel was stocked full,
from the hull to the top of the pilot
house, she steamed up and started for
Memphis, while the cannon were yet
booming.
When we turned our eyes toward the
river and beheld the prize, mighty
yell went up from the Yanks that could
be heard above the roar of the heavy
siege guns at Fort Curtis, gunboat Tyler,
mortars and field pieces. helped to
bury the dead, and some of those ravines
were so full of dead bodies we just dug
trenches and rolled them in. Every
canteen we examined contained whisky
and gunpowder, and the dead confed-
crates We're as black as Negroes, and
very much decomposed. 1t was a hor-
rible task. One thing was very much
in our favor-we had for a commander
a man who was in the army for pure
patriotism; one who had the entire re-
spect of every soldier under his COM
mand, and after the wounded and dead
were cared for he called around him his
little band of soldiers and with smile
on his countenance for those around
him, and tears in his eyes for the dead
and wounded, he told us he hoped soon
to lead us across the state, and drive
the enemy therefrom; but it was not to
be, for in short time he was relieved
of his commando. Gordon, in Toledo
Blade,