The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-07-13

COLONEL SAVAGE SHOT WHILE CHEERING
HIS MEN.
| with loss of 300 killed and wounded.
| This regiment went into the grand charge
at Cold Harbor on June l l,SOO strong.
1t lost there Colonel Peter A. Porter and
2O3 men killed and 300 wounded. In one
charge at Hare's Hill Colonel Willard w.
Bates was killed and 3O7 men and officers
killed and wounded Major Blake was
MORALLY wounded.
Hancock resumed the assaults on Hare's
| Hill ON the 18th, and the position fell after
some of the most desperate fighting on
record. Gibbons division, which had suf-
fercd less than the others, was chosen to
storm Hare's Hill and the impregnable
works beyond it, which during the night
| had becn filled with Lees veterans from
| the north of the James. The order to Glib
| bon was to push his columns forward pre-
| csely at noon and not fire a shot until the
! Confederate intrenchments were reached
! The charge was repulsed and was renewed
| again at 2 o'clock. In this attack the
| Thirty sixth Wisconsin was the heaviest
| loser in the division. At the signal to
march Colonel John a. Savage, Jr., step
ped in front of the colOrs and shouted
/ Three cheers for the honor of Wisconsin,
/ Forward, my brave men!" He leaped over
tho amendments in front and was in
stantly stretched low with n mortal
wound The killed and wounded in the
regiment numbered 1l5 The Thirty-siXth
had also suffered heavily at Cold Harbor
where its first colonel, Frank A. Haskell
was killed.
After the rcpulse of this attack occurred
the terrible disaster to the First Maine
heavy artillery. The division Of Mott
lBirncy's) was ordered to try whore Glib
bon had failed and the First Maine, a fine
! large regiment numbering 900 muskcts,
was placed in the front of the leading col
umn. Having witnessed the slaughter on
this field during the day, the men knew
what To expect and babe one another good
by as they faced the terrible ordeal Led
by three battlclags, they advanced over II
slight crest, and in less than 10 minutes
G32 of them lay dead or mangled on the
sward The killed and mortally wounded
numbered 2l0, the highest loss numerical
ly suffered by any regiment during the
war. Just one month previous the First
Maine had received its baptism Of fire at
Spottsylvania, losing l47 killed and 329
wounded.
This slaughter ended the assaults for IA
time, and siege operations lasting 10
months were commenced. After the re.
pulse of Motifs line, the following remark
able message was sent from army head
quarters to the commander of the Second
corps: Sorry to hear you could not carry
the works. l suppose you cannot make
any more attacks, and feel satisfied that
all has been done that can be done"
The losses in these three days of assault
fell principally upon 10 regiments of the
Ninth corps and IL of the Second In the
assault of the 10Th 10 regiments of the
Eighteenth corps each met with loss in
killed and wounded exceeding 90.
Four regiments of the Fifth corps also
lost heavily in those Petersburg assaults.
They were the Third and Fourth Della
ware, Twenty first Pennsylvania cavalry
(dismounted) and the Seventh Wisconsin.
Had it not been for circumstances, which
change the face of everything, the grount
where 10, 900 brave men went down befort
Confederate bullets would rank with tn,
slopes Of Marye's Heights and the ridge a
Gettysburg as soil consecrated by pas
deeds of martial valor
GEORGE l.. KILMER.