The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-04-13

son. The Second soon stood alone, its
companion regiments having dropped
out. The Massachusetts, men remained
firm, coolly firing while the other regi-
ments reformed behind it, but was again
left unsupported just as an entire bri-
gade fell upon it from the right rear.
The captain of the right company and
20 men were killed in the fury of the
assault. The major was also killed there,
and the regiment am off with 56 dead
and Over 100 wounded.
At Antietam the regiment lost fewer
than in the Cedar Mountain fight, but
stood in the hottest corner of the field
nevertheless. With the Twelfth corps,
part old valley troops and all from Co.
dar Mountain, it confronted jackson at
the Cornfield and Bunker church. Charg-
ing to the edge of the cornfield when it
was filled with the enemy, the Second
maintained "a CALLING fire upon them
until Ne ground was gray with dead.
Afterward 1t charged through the field
up to the Bloody Lane" where it
faced a fire from the enemy as terrible
as it had inflicted in the cornfield a
short time before. The C~onfederates
stood in the shelter of a thick belt of
woods about 100 yards from the lane
and greatly outnumbered Gordon's men,
who We're alone. 1t was at the time Of
cold Bull" Summers charge, when the
whole army OF the field was tiercely en-
gagged, and brigades and divisions were
wiped out almost at a breath. Gordon's
men returned the enemy's fire with
spirit, but could not advance without
useless sacrifice. To remain in its ex.
posed position was also a reckless waste
Of life, and it was ordered back across
that cornfeld, where even the stalks had
been moved down by the sitting fire.
The Second retired last and in perfect
order, as at Winchester and Cedar Noun
tain. Antietam added 20 to the death
roll, besides 30 wounded. In the battle
at the lane Lieutenant Colonel Wilder
S. Dwight fell MORALLY wounded, the
second field officer killed in the regi.
ment.
The next great battle Of the Army Of
the Potomac was missed by the Second
Massachusetts, and the whole Twelfth
corps, in fact. The corps guarded the
Potomac during the campaign at Fred
erlcksburg, but at Charlottesville q part
OF 1t went into action as reserve to the
Eleventh corps. The Second, as usual,
in for the lions share of the fight
1t lost the most men killed there
OF any regiment in the corps, and that
was its record all through the service.
When Jeb Stuart gathered up Stone
wall Jackson's victorious battalions to
press the charge that renowned leader
had barely initiated when he fell, a part
Of Slocum's Twelfth corps lay in the
pathway Ct his advance. The iercest
fighting took place on Sunday morning,
May 3. The Union troops fell back
fighting through Hazel Grove to a new
position in the rear where the army was
massed. Every step of the ground was
disputed as the lines retired, and it was
during this difficult retrograde that the
Second was called upon to play the role
it had practiced in the Shenandoah val
ley and also at Cedar Mountain. Three
it turned and charged upon the
advancing enemy, each time trampling
over his dead and wounded and driving
him to cover like hunted prey. In it's
asst charge the regiment met the First