The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-04-09

his high courage he is best remembered in
! the annals of the navy by that last act,
which won for him the title 'The Sidney
| of the Sea-"
Every battle has it's hero, and in the des-
perate affair at Corinth, Miss, Oct. S, 1862,
| Col. W.. p. Rogers of the Second Texas
| Confederate, bore off the palm for bravery
by unanimous consent of both sides. His
regiment had the advance in a brilliant
| charge upon the strong earthworks sur
rounding the town. At Battery Bobinett
| the Union column had free play upon the
assailants, and masked line of infantry
| coolly awaited them at close quarters with
singing volleys of bullets and the bayonet.
| Conspicuous at the head of the charging
troops was the commanding figure of the
bold Texan, and as they approached the
ditch he seized the flag of his regiment and
planted it on the embankment. Here at
length he fell, pierced with eleven bullets,
according to the statement of his chief
tain, Gen. Sterling Price. His enemies
noted his conspicuous courage and shared
their admiration with his friends at the
time of the battle.
The heroic defense of Lexington, Mo-,
by Col James A. Mulligan, in 1861, had
enough of glory attending it to canonize
score of men, but even then it was not the
climax of the career of that gallant Irish
man. On returning from captivity he was
offered generals command, but preferred
to remain by his old regiment, the Twenty
third Illinois, commonly known as the
Irish Brigade of the West. He was in the
Shenandoah valley in 1864, when the Con-
federates, under Gen. Early, passed through
on their raids into Maryland and Penn
sylvana, and in the fight near Winchester,
on July "a, led a gallant charge into the
enemys lines He received three wounds,
either of which would have been mortal.
HIS companions, among them brother
in-Iaw, attempted to carry him back to the
Urion lines, but seeing that the flag was
in danger of capture bv the victorious
Confederates, he exclaimed, Lay me down
and save the flag" His wish was obeyed
and the banner was rescued, but the Con-
federate lines soon closed around the help
less hero and he died prisoner of war two
days later
The hot little battle of Franklin, Tenn,
Nov. 80, 1854, had the distinction of count
ing more dead generals among it's slain
belonging to one side than any of the great
fields of the war. The fight began after
o'clock in the afternoon, and before the
sun went down Eve Confederate generals
lay dead Chief among them was Maj.
Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne, the "Stonewal
of the West" Cleburne had singular ca
reer. He was foreigner by birth, and en-
tered the Confederate service as private,
and with no other leverage than native
ability won his way to major general
ship
There had been some unpleasant Incl.
dents in the Hood campaign of invasion
leading up to Franklin, and Cleburne had
been involved, but on the eve of the des-
perate charge, after forming his division
in three lines of attack, he said to Hood,
General, am ready, and have more hope
in tho final success of our cause than have
had at any time since the first gun was
fired" With these words he sounded the
charge, and to both friends and enemies
he seemed animated with unusual desperar
ton. In one wild rush the division broke
the first Union line, and then for the rest OF
the short afternoon the fury of the contest
has no parallel Where Cleburne led, thir-
teen distinct charges were recorded by
Union officers. Commands overlapped and
intermingled, and 5 generals Of the as
saulting column were killed, 3 were wound
ed and / was captured inside the Union
works. Gen. Hood said that the field re.
called to him the terrible scenes of carnage
he had passed through at Gaines Mill, An
tietam and Gettysburg. No one survived
that could tell exactly how Cleburne met
his fate, but his body was found at the
ditch of the Union works, where the Con-
federate dead lay thickest, and it is be-
lieved that he fell late in the action in at
tempting to resist countercharge by
Union reserves.
A lion of the deck, who fell on the very
threshold of a bright career, was Col.
Charles Ellet, father of the Union steam
ram feet on the Mississippi. Ellet was ii
civil engineer who volunteered to con-
struct and lead fleet of steam rams in
imitation of the dreaded Confederate Mer-
rimac. When the Union gunboat feet
started down the Mississippi in June,
1862, Ellet accompanied it with a squadron
of wooden steamers armed with rams. The
Confederate fleet, consisting of eight heavy
ironclad vessels, steamed up the river to
meet the Union armament, and Ellet dashed
Into the line, in face of heavy fire, with
tho rams Queen of the West and Monarch.
He stood Oh the deck of the Queen and di-
rected her with such force and precision
as to send his first antagonist to the bot
tom at one blow. Other Confederate YES.
sells soon closed in around the Queen, and
Ellet received pistol shot in the knee that
proved mortal, and though he sank under
ment directing his rams until the Confed-
crate fotilla was destroyed and his son
and subordinate officer, Charles r. Ellet,
had unfuried the stars and stripes in
Memphis to signalize the victory and re-
ceived the surrender of the city in the
name of the wounded hero.
GEORGE L. KILMER.