Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-05-02
Grant s Left Flank March
A FoRTIETH ANNIVERSARY WAR STORY
May 1925. 1864

were about equal thrOugnOut the war. | The First South Carolina lost 281 men | killed in battle, and the Eighty-third | Pennsylvania scored a death roll of | 2S2 The loss of the Carolinians was next to the highest suffered in a south ern regiment and that of the Penn | sylvanians next to the highest among | northern regiments.
 Tn Warren's fight at North Anna the | famous ''Mink's battery performed i one of it's many gallant exploits When Browns -Carolinians struck the right | flank of Warren's line and sent it back in confusion Mink's pieces were nov ing to position on knoll behind the Federal troops, facing the attack. The Confederate line arose from behind a ridge, fired one volley and then charg- ed. NIink's stirring cry, Forward in- to battery!'' was quickly responded to, but the guns could not fire at the men in gray without sweeping down the Federals also.
 Browns column made a dash for the bridge behind Mink's guns. Only two sections of the battery were ready for action, those of Bates and Ritchie. Bates suggested that the pieces be re tired by prolongs, firing as they re 1 treated, but Mink told him to hold on and station three cannoneers to each of the four pieces. Captain Mink was disabled at the time by cracked | ankle. a reminiscence of the enemy's { shrapnel at spottsylvania, and could not dismount, so he kept in saddle and not only directed his battery, but help ~<1 fiv1er Inf a fru l hind his guns.
 Ut looks tough for Mink" said an artillery officer, watching the move ment from the rear, to comrade be- side him. But when the guns began to bark the comrade responded, Do you see that and that and thatg' Mink said afterward, Ut was enough I to warm the cookies of an artillerists heart to see the way those twelve canisters cleared our front"
 One of Minkss officers Augustus c. Buell., states in his "Reminiscences of Cannoneer''. .that the captains wound ed ankle swelled to double the normal size. He couldn't wear boot and used an old army shoe sizes too large. The surgeon repeatedly urged Mink to have the wound dressed, but he sim ply answered, 'Fill my flask with bran dy, Doc, and I'll take care of the leg"
 While Grant was making his flank marches through the wilderness region toward Richmond a fleet of Federal gunboats on the James river, co-operat- ingvwith an army under General, Ben 4 jamin K. Butler, advanced on the Con- l federate capital from the south On May Is Buffers lines closely invested Fort Darling, at Drewry's bluff, seven miles below the city. Sheridan's caval- " corps was also at hand to aid But Ter, and the Confederates were alarmed lest these forces combined should force them to evacuate Richmond. To meet the crisis Jefferson Davis ordered an attack on Buffers line with three di- visions under General Beauregard, l while another division under General Whiting would strike in the rear of Butler and cut his army off from it's I base
 Beauregard's column moved to the attack under cover of a heavy fog at 5 o'clock in the morning with the di- visions of Hoke, Ransom and Colquitt and quickly overpowered Buffers right flank. Troops were brought over from the Federal left to succor the right, but Beauregard forced the fight ing all along the line, and Butler order ed retreat. Fortunately for Butler, l General Writings raid on his base proved failure, for Beauregard fol lowed the retreat from Fort Darling to Bermuda Hundred and there securely bottled up' the Army of the James,
 It was really a steel thread which saved Butler that foggy morning at Fort Darling, a netting of telegraph wire ingeniously spread to snare the intrepid Confederates. Beauregard sent forward Hoke's division to sur prise and overpower the Federal right, held by WeitzeFs division Tn front of Weitzels line forest had been cut, leaving field of stumps standing a couple of feet from the ground.
 The afternoon preceding Beaure- gard's attack Captain David Steele of the Second New Hampshire, an old forty miner" fertiIeein expedients, had the audacity to suggest to army head I quarters that the stump lot might be converted into a veritable pigeon trap Uy S1IAAS1uS dulOuS tLG aSluIlpSH S0N-. eral miles of wire found dangling ffbm the poles along Richmond turnpike. Permission was granted and busy hands worked all night stringing the wire in front of two brigades.
 Every inch of the stump lot was familiar ground to the New HaInp- shire soldiers, who had trained their rifles across it for two days Not a shot was wasted by the men from the Granite State as Hoke's charging lines emerged from the fog and stum- bled among the wires.
 Three times Hoke's men recoiled and again surged forward. When all was over the ground was matted with the forms of Hoke's brave southerners l who went down in the rash attack. In one South Carolina battalion in front of the New Hampshire line the flag l was pierced fifty-seven times and in