The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-06-23

Orders were to remove tie cas- from
the muskets and rely entirely upon the
bayonet The mems faces lad grown
very serious. We knew BARRY. very
many. Of us were to die. Men turned
to their comrades. bidding each other
goodby, and. with tears tricliiug down
their cheeks. dictated mess. gpS to
wives, fathers. mothers. sisters and
sweethearts in case they should he
among the slain
On the receipt of the word to go the
Maine men sprang forward at double
quick, and the moment the first bat
TALON line appeared above tie embank-
ment where the column formed the
slaughter began. Men were shot dead
within the first five feet" says Cap
tain +. \. Cummings, another survivor
The crash of 1900 muskets rent the
air as a long line of fame leapcd from
the works in our front. and the well
known yell of the Army of Northern
Virginia mingled with the roar of the
rebel batteries on our right and left as
their canister followed the musket
balls of the infantry and tore enormous
gaps in our ranks.
THE First battalion melted away be
fore this fire and lay in ii heap. officers
and men, except now and then a scat
tering one who had miraculously es-
capped. Before the Second or Third
battalion reached its place the regi-
mental formation had been almost OBJ
liberated, and two-thirds of the First
Maine lay stricken upon the field Still,
without firing a gun, but in blind ODE
dience to orders, the remnant strug-
gled on toward that ptiless line Of fire
that never ceased or slackened. The
reader must understand that the regi-
ment was alone"
Major Low thinks that some of the
men went within fifty yards of the en-
emy's works. General Mott says:
They charged nearly up to the glacis.
or what would represent it in Il regular
fertilization, = but could not attain
the barrier before them, submitted like
heroes to the tempest of canister balls
and bullets and were arrested under
close fire only to cover the ground with
their dead and wounded
THE wave of heroes was shattered
against that rampant of earth ard
blown to pieces by that whirlwinG of
death"
There were three flags carried in the
charge by three sergeants, and six cor
porals acted as cClOr bearers. OF the
nine, seven We're shot down, and one. a
corporal, was killed. One Of the cor
porals, w. \. Mason of Company b, re-
ceived seven wounds. Mason took the
cOlors from a wounded sergeant and
went ahead until he fell with a wound
through the body and in both legs.
"Nason's body showed nine openings
made by the enemy's MISSILES" said
Major Fred c. Low of Company b,
land he was the worst cut up man |
ever saw. After Sergeant James NJ.
Smith, the color bearer of our battal-
ion, was shot down Mason seized the
flag and carried it forward until he fell
with bullets through the head. chest
and each leg. He was the last of seven
to fall out of the nine sergeants and
cOrporals with the colors He lay
where lie fell until he was found some
time in the night by Colonel Chaplin,
who was searching the field for the
colors. Mason was unconscious. and
his fingers were firmly clasped about
the flagstaff. AS he was supposed to
be dead, no further attention was paid
to him then, but the next night. when
We tried TO recover and bury the
bodies, Mason had disappeared. He
had recovered consciousness and crawl
ed off the field during the day, and at
night some of the men took him into
the cellar of the Hare house, where |
found him. He of course did not re-
turn TO duty and never knew the par
ticularS of his rescue until twenty six
years afterward, when | explained it
to him at our reunion
The losses in the regiment are vari
Ously stated, as is also the number ell
gagged. Some accounts place the num-
Der in the ranks at $50, others at 800
Major Low places it at $50 officers and
men in line. The official loss reported
was $50 killed and wounded, but fuller
details swell it to $50. The killed and
MORALLY wounded were 210. The regi-
ment was as good as wiped out Colo
mel Chaplin, the leader, went up to
General Mott after the charge was
over and, offering him his sword. said:
Take my sword, general. | have no
further use for it," Then, pointing to
the ground between the lines, he con-
tinued, There is my regiment lying
on that field" Colonel Chaplin had
trained his men to the idea that. be-
ing soldiers, they must obey orders.
Boys. always obey orders and never
finch" was the message he sent to
the regiment as he lay dying some
weeks after this charge
The First Maine had not only the
highest loss of any regiment in one en-
gagement, but the highest in killed and
MORALLY wounded during its term of
service. 1t was in fourteen bloody en-
gagements and had 400 men and %
officers killed or MORALLY wounded.
Its percentage of killed and mortally
wounded was exceeded by only one
anpimnDt tbn Saanp1