Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-09-07
Copyright. l9os. By G. W. DiuInshan Co.
CHAPTER xXIv.-cosrrSuEp.

CHAPTER XXIV.-CoNTINUED.
Four o'clock. and still the batteries
of Hall and Stewart, with three hard
pounded brigades, hold their ground
on the ridge. while the valley behind
them is fast filing with Ewell's madly
exultant men, driving Towards beaten
divisions before them. To hang on
longer is simply madness. Beginning
at the right, therefore, stern and 81
lent, the devoted brigadeo give
ground slowly. still facing the foe, still
firing low and well. The crush comes
as the streams of wounded thicken at
the outskirts of the town, merging
with the fugitives of the Eleventh
corps, and the roads and streets are
blocked by batteries, ambulances, stray
caissons and ammunition wagons, ali
in full retreat. The pinch of the fight,
the browning hour of the day, the
bloodiest battle of all the 40 hours of
thrilling combat, is here on the slope
TO the north Of the seminary, where,
from the teeth of the foe, from the
midst of their slaughtered horses, the
men of the west essay to drag and save
their pets, their comrades in every
fight and field, the black-mouthed,
smoking, heated, still laundering guns
of battery B."
Davis and Daniel--two fighting
southern b~rigadiers they-are riding
madly among their powder-stained
men; driving them on in the face of
those stubborn wild westerners; point
ing their swords at the crippled guns,
where men are ming at the wheels
and slashing at ne harness of the
slaughtered horses. Get those guns!"
shrek the leaders. Square accounts
for the battle-hags lost in the cut!"
But, between the surging rush of Caro-
lima, Mississippi and Georgia, with the
supporting Virginians at their back,
and that battle-scarred battery limp
ing slowly away down the pike, there
still i%nterposes that stern, indomitable,
magnificent line in blue-all that is
left of the Iron ~Brigade-as, front to
the foe, closing ever on its colors, vol
leying steadily, defiantly, u~nfiinching-
iy into the very face of its outnumber-
ing, yet respectful, pursuers, it backs
away over the ridge, leaving over a
third of its membership streWing its
tracks, another third having already
been borne bleeding away toward the
town, and so, as the SUI goes down on
the tremendous day, so, slowly, stead
lily, wrapped in clouds of its W bat
tie smoke, the eastern brigade descends
to the plain, the Sixth last to halt in
the streets Of the town and to cheer to
the echo the cause of the flag, while
the guns once more unlimber, on the
rise of Cemetery Hill, as though daring
the foemen to come on and take them.
No wonder the Badgers grip hands
with the Wolverines, they that remain.
Almost 500 Of the Michigan men went
into the fight by the side of the vet
Grams. Only 100 are left in line when
at last the day is done. Fully 300 have
been shot down on the field; some few
have been captured. IL officers alone
their dead outnumber those of the rest
of the brigade. OF the Black Hats
surviving there stand now but 70.
''And they might have cut you of
entirely" says Doubleday, as he rides
among the remnants, hating along the
wooded hillside, east of their rescued
guns. "BufoTd saw, what you couldn't
see through the smoke, that two bril-
gades were sweeping down south of the
seminary to intercept you. He formed
his squadrons to charge. They saw it,
by jove! and halted and formed
squares to resist him, and that saved
you. Capt. Benton, | wish you would
ride over and present my compliments
and thanks to Gen. Buford. He's JUST
moving off past that stone farm house
yonder down in the valley" And so
ended the day.