Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-22
CIVIL WAR MEMORIES
VETERANS RECALL THE BATTLE
OF FREDERICKSBURG.

A number of stern looking men, their hair
whitened by age. are In Washington today
seeing the sights. On the coat lapels OF
each of the venerable visitors Is blue rib
bon badge. lettered In gold. This inscrip
ton tells that the wearers were soldiers in
the late 9TH Georgia Regiment of Cobb 8
Legion, confederate army. 1t also gives the
list of important battles they participated
in from the seven days fighting about
Richmond to the surrender of General Lee
at Appomattox.
At the head of the delegation of former
men In gray is Captain Hudson of Marietta.
Ca; DR.. Northen of Noonan. Ca. who was
"a captain In the It'll: Mr.. J. A. Norton OF
Lithonia, Ca. and Mr.. W. p. Johnson Of
Redman. Ga.
I'VE have been to the Bull Run battle
field" said Mr.. Johnson. where We held
reunion with the survivors of the Sth
Virginia Infantry. There are about fifty
of the survivors Of the 7th Georgia In the
party. and tomorrow We will go to Fred
ericksburg, Va. to visit the old battle
ground there
These were some of the men OF Cobb's
Georgia Legion. who gave Meagher's Irish
brigade seven bloody repulses when they
bravely charged that number OF times up
the slopes of Marye's Heights and into the
very Jaws of death and mouth Of hell as
one of the Georgian's expressed It, quoting
from 1.-The Charge of the Light Brigade"
THE sight on that bright December morn
ing of 1862 was a terrible one said one of
the 7th Georg!ans I'VE crouched behind
the now famous stone wall overlooking the
equally famous sunken road, with our mus
kets loaded and cooked. Below. on the
plain. we could see the masses of soldiers in
blue forming for the desperate but gallant
charges that were to send SO many of them
into eternity and people the slope with their
corDses.
Pelham's Artillery.
Behind us Maj. Pelham. the boy chief of
Gen. Lees artillery, had posted his guns, so
that they would sweep the slope over which
the brave Irish-Americans were to charge
recall that early in the morning. before
the battle began, Gen. Lee. in company
with Maj. Pelham. was surveying the posi-
tons in which the boy chief had placed his
cannon the night before.
Are you sure, major said Gen. Lee.
that your guns will properly sweep this
slope (pointing to the declivity) when the
enemy charges US today. as 1 believe he
will?'
General replied the little game cock
Pelham. saIuting, General, when 1 open
fire down that slope. a chicken cannot live
In front of my guns.
"And so it happened" continued the
Georgia soldier. "Pelham's guns were dou-
BILE shotted on the ridge behind our line.
AS Meaghers men neared the stone wall.
shouting, and some of them firing as they
came we aimed our muskets in their very
faces and fired point blank. Then Pelham's
double shotted guns roared behind US and
sent their grape and canister and other
missiles of death hurtling into their
masses; then when some of the Union SOL
diers wavered Gen. Cobb shouted, Give
them the bayonet, boys and many Of us
sprang over the wall and forced those who
had hesitated to join the retreating throngs.
1T was an awful sight. The slaughter
made me, hardened soldier as l was, feel
faint The Union men who went down be-
fore our fire lay in great winrows OF dead.
But 1 tell you, sir, those repeated charges
illustrated the valor of the men in blue in
front of us. I regard Meagher's charge at
Fredericksburg, next to Pickett's charge
at Gettysburg. as the greatest In the worlds
history; and it has won undying fame for
the participants.