The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-11-08

trous experience The regiment had
good beginning The call for 75, 600
volunteers 10 avenge the insult at Sum
ter fixed New HaHapshiFe,s quota at
one regiment, but enthusiasm ran high,
aud recruits rushed into camp in num-
bers 20 Ill two regiments. The Second
regiment was organized to serve three
months, but the United States governments
increased tho term from three months to
three years, and the enthusiastic boys took
the leap without a murmur and swore in
to serve three years They meant business.
On reaching Virginia, the regiment joined
General Burnside's Rhode Island brigade
and marched TO Bull Run In that famous
hanking column Of General Hunters which
stirred upand perpetrated and endured the
most Of tho mischief history sets down rs
the battle Of Bull Run. 1t was in the adj
vance with Burnside's brigade and helped
repulse the first charge Of the Confederates.
The colonel, Gilman Marston, was shot
down just as he was giving the order, up
and at themr to his New Hampshire boys.
For some hours the regiment held its
ground while the battle ragged around 1t.
When the panic and retreat began, IL
stood fast, and opportunely Colonel Mars
ton reached the front with CORY bandage
on his wounded shoulder. The men re-
ceived him with cheers. Down into the
plain, already strewn with the debris Of
battle, he led them through swarms of
panic stricken soldiers up the hill beyond
in front of a Confederate battery. There
they remained, plying bullets at the ene-
my's cannoneers until the Union ranks
were irretrievably broken and the day lost.
1t was a tough lesson we'll taken. The ven
% l,,11o .I1 L..
gaps in their ranks Fourteen were killed,
- wounded and 10 missing
The next battle of the Second gave the
men test oftheir bush fighting valor That
was at williamsburg, on the peninsula,
May 8, 1852. The regiment was in flight
ing Joen HoolSer's advance column In the
attack on the enemy's concealed batteries
and rifle pits Hooker's men picked their
way through swamp slasbings and fallen
trees until brought to halt under biting
fire OF canister and bullets. The men of
different regiments became mixed, and the
New Hampshire boys mingled with some
Massachusetts troops, who were clad in
gray like the Confcderates.
Captain Leonard Droun of Company T.
led mixed body of New Hampshire and
Massachusetts, men against position held
by men in gray, and in drawing close was
met with a white flag and the cry: Don't
shooti We are friends" The Confederates
mistook the Massachusetts, color for their
own, but seeing the error opened fire mt
close range, killing the chivalric captain
and several Of his followers. The battle
continued several hours, and heavy, cold
rain beat down the whole time, adding the
severest hardships TO the terror of the bat
tie The Second held out until the reserves
reached the front. 1t lost % killed, Oh
wounded and 10 missing.
In similar brush fight on the Chicka-
hominy at Oak Grove, June 25 the rcgi-
ment again proved its metal. The sharp
shooting Company B, armed with Sharps
rifles, lost % killed and wounded out of 40
engaged.
One OF the fercest contests of the war
took place at Groveton, on the old Bull
Run field, Aug. 90, 1882. 1t furnishes a
theme for the descriptive writer equal in
many respects 20 that Of Antietam, Chick
amauga or Gettysburg. Stonewall jack
sons army was tabe cut In two TO prevent
junction with Longstreet, and In front OF
the Second New Hampshire the Confeder-
ates lay three lines deep. The first line
was sheltered in q railroad cut, and the
second and third lay in woods behind.
At the word OF command the New Hamp-
shire boys, with loaded guns and fixed bay
onets, marched silently up a gentle slope
over n crest and across n still gentler slope
of open field toward the cut. There was
no signal, no sound OF wars horrible clam.
or, and the cracking of dried twigs, the
suppressed tones Of the officers giving or
ders, furnished the only music 20 stir the
blood for the encounter. Suddenly thou
sand muskcts blazed along the brink OF the
cut, and volley Of bullets tore through the
air, making music that the soldier must
answer in kind or sleep the long sleep 20
It's lullaby. Not bullets this time, but cold
steel.
Loud rang the order 70 charge, and tight
ening their grip on the musket stocks the
men broke into run and cleared the rail-
IA
NJ NSAs.,