The National tribune., 1904-09-29

was killed befers reaching the ditch.
johnson and had noticed, otter getting
In pretty close range Of the fort, that the
big gun that We were watching ceased mr.
Ing, and when we made our rush, directed
1t toward that gun; but our line was too
the parapet at that point without over.
tapping the angle, 90 we swung around
upon the north face. Here the ditch was
not less than 10 feet deep. The rebs fred
at us even while we were jumping into the
ditch, and flung over the parapet at US
whatever they could lay their hands on.
BATTLE INCIDENTS.
The First Sergeant Of my company,
afraid of nothing, was hit in the head with
fuse mallet, and, jumping to his. feet in
the the ditch, mad a. hornet, exclaimed.
head with thing like that at time like
this!"
There was sallyport just about where
the north face Of the fort Joined the line Of
earthwork, with bridge spanning the
ditch. Onto this bridge rode a rebel officer
on an old gray horse, apparently field
officer, and emptied his revolver at us
fired at him with his left hand whatever
shots were in his revolver, leaving it
empty.
Billy Bourke, sandy-haired Irishman
of Co. B. as he jumped into the ditch by
me. picked up the blue State flag of the
18Sth Pa. the bearer of which had been
shot at the edge of the ditch, and side by
side. he and II am sure | don't know
just how, but we did it-climbed the ditch
and parapet until we could look over into
the fort. We had barely raised our heads
high enough to see the men inside standing
scattered about with their. pieces at a
ready, when q ball struck Billy, cutting
cash across his forehead, knocking him
over against me. and we both rolled back
into the ditch. We sprang to our feet and
| said to Billy. who was wiping the blood
from his forehead with one hand while he
still held on to the colors with the other,
.Are you hurt, Billy?"
mo. sir; not much." he answered, "but
I can't see. The blood runs into my eyes"
"Ga "Gan :;e" 70" get up"
''Well. then, shove me np"
At that moment an officer Of another
regiment. who was. like almost every
body l saw around there, wildly excited
leaned over the side Of the ditch and
reached me sword, saying, "Here, Cap. !:
here's your sword. Take it." l had my
sword on and told him no, but it was use
less to talk to a man in his state, so
took the sword and rammed il into the
side Of the ditch to the hi1t. put one foot
on it, took the colors Billy handed me,
and, with a shove from him, mounted the
parapet a good deal quicker than l had
done before.
INSIDE THE FoRT.
Meantime Johnson and q private named
Otis Copeland, of Co. J, had mounted the
parapet just to my right. Copeland top
shot through the head. johnson, as he got
up, was shot through his left arm below
the elbow, but no bones were broken, and
he hung on to his empty pistol; ran across
the perapet jumped ON the banquet, pre-
sented his empty weapon at two officers
who were crouching there, wounded, and
surrendered to him, looked up and saw
what l, who was then standing on the
parapet. saw too, little chap Of an Off
Ger. with his pants rammed into his boots,
about to bang at him with his revolver.
johnson put up his pistol without discon-
certing the little fellow, who blazed away
and knocked him over.
The rebs were scattered about inside
the fort, some retreating, others firing at
us who were mounting the parapet. When
topped the parapet there was nobody in
sight on it from where stood clear around
as far as ! could see toward the river end
of 1t, but noticed the left of the division
seemed to be more confused or to be meet
ing more opposition than we were. 1t
was but moment, however, before Off
GERS and men began to come over near
where was, and those of the garrison
who had stood their ground began 20
leave.
As turned to the front again, having
faced the division to call up somebody to
keep me company in my lonely position,
| got couple of shots in my right arm,
and jumping down on the banquet was
shot again through the left hand by fell
low who had started to run, but turned
around just long enough to hit me.
stood the colors up against the parapet
and stopped the first man l could find who
had his wits about him enough to know
what was wanted, Serg't McKown, and
got him to cut my gloves and sleeves off
so l could see what the damage was. Some
time after this some Of the 1S8th called
for their flag, and it was turned over to
them
Johnson had not been killed by the shot
that knocked him over. and he and sat
on the gun platform underneath the big
gun we had been watching, and saw then
that the reason it had stopped firing was
because 1t had been knocked off it's pintle
While We lay there, johnson saw Gen.
Burnham trying to turn one of the heavy
guns on the river end tof the fort so that
1t would fire on the fetreating rebs, and
told Col. Roberts. who came up at that
inoAHChtt lhdt lUc OSu ~. L., Oh our DrlgdQe.
had been drilled in the use Of heavy guns.
One or two of the guns in our end of the
fort were then turned on the rebs and be-
gan firing. l heard afterward that Gen.
Burnham was killed.
This is just what saw at Fort Harri-
son. as l told the story on the day after
the fight and have told it frequently since
LOSSES.
Gen. Ord, who commanded the corps.
was wounded that morning, and Stannard
our division commander, lost his right arm
the next day. Neither Of them made any
official report of the action until the fol-
lowing year, and then from recollection
and hearsay, apparently, The division had
in action certainly not over $500 men,
and probably not over. $500. The nomi-
nal lists Of killed and wounded show
loss of 700. distributed as follows: Field
and staff. s.: the First Brigade. 1877; the
Second Brigade. 26Qs the Third Brigade
2sS: The loss in my own regiment was
10S out. of a total sf ,226, the heaviest
loss in the division.
7 Col. (then GeneraD Roberts wrote to
me after the war, asking me what I
thought Of his haiting s,s just before we
made the final rush on Fort Harrison
told him that with il food many men it
would have been risky thing to do, but
that with our regiment In front, he might
have halted tksaa. whsh and where he