The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-02

vancing. and soon our skirmishers be- gan to come in, the eneny's heavy hne of skirmishers following them closeiy. The woods were so thick that one could moi be seen, even in the most open nlscas more than seyenty-five or eighty yara~, Colonel Herbert mad been talking to his men, warning them ,hat m man was to fire until the order was given. He had just quoted tns celebrated language of General ru' ,nan--.Wa must not lopen on them un- til we can see the whites of their eyes when he was severely wounded py | sharp-shooter. still the men, ooeyins orders, did not fire Immediateiy cap, tain Nall, the next in rank s..iss, command, taking the same position Colonel Herbert had occupied. In moment he too was severely wounded; and still the men did not fire, Inen Captain H. C. Lea took command. Ine main line of the enemy was now ciose 1 hy. coming up in fine style, when our | men opened fire. The enemy were a' | once staggered. and after a voiley or | two began to retreat, the Brigade fol- I lowing them with a murderous ire: IT l the charge Captain Lea was wounded, | and then the command fell upon Cap | tain Mordecai We drove the enemy | hack with great slaughter probably | half mile or more. The gallant Gen | eral Wadsworth, one of the most efn- | cient and popular officers in Grants army, was found wounded in front of l the Sth. We sent him to the Field | Hospital in our rear, to he cared for: 1 but his wound was mortal and he died | the next day.
 | The regiment was also slightly en- | gagged the next day. Our loss in the | two days fighting-which was very | slight, however. on the 7th-was forty six killed, wounded and missing, the | only officers wounded being the three | above mentioned who were successive ! ly in command.
 l The carnage in the two days fight | at the Wilderness was dreadful. though l larger on the side of the Federal troops | than of the Confederates. The general | result, although the battle had been | fought with varying success at differ | ent portions of the lines, was bloody | repulse of the Union army; and Gener- | al Grant now rapidly swung his army | of by the left flank in the direction of Spottsy1vania, c. H.
 I The author finds In the official rec ! ords of the war no report from General Perrin of the part our Brigade took | in this fight. Special reports from commanding officers of the Brigade are from this time forward indeed almost | entirely wanting. resulting from the fact that the fighting henceforward, even down to Appomatox, was so con- tinuous and the operations so absorb | ing that our Brigade commanders | seem to have had little time within | which to make and send in special ac- l counts of battles. The gallant General l Perrin, who commanded us at the Will l derness, was killed five days after | wards leading our attack at Spottsyl- vania, and this accounts flor the lack | of any report of the part taken by our | Brigade in either of these battles.
 It may be said here also that while
 Captain Fagan's diary is specific as to the important dates or battles and loss | es, as are also the historical memo l randa made out on the 1st day of Jam uary, 1865, by Lieutenant-Colonel Em-
 rich, the writer is obliged for want Of
 specific data to forego any attempt to
 describe particularly the part taken | by the Sth Alabama in many of the
 battles in which it was subsequently,
 engaged.
 The regiment was slightly engaged | on May Sth at Bradshaw's Farm. and
 on the 9th reached Spottsylvania. C.
 H., where occurred one of the blood
 fest contests of the whole war, much | of which centered around what is
 known in history as the celebrated
 bloody angle" where the Confeder-
 ate General Johnson was captured by
 the enemy, with 1.200 prisoners Our
 Division, R. H. Anderson's, assisted in | the final repulse of the enemy, the Sth
 Alabama losing in killed and wounded
 twenty-slx. including among the latter
 the brave Captain John McGrath. Be-
 sides losing here, as has been said, General Perrin. Captain Walter Vim, I kha gallant A1iufa0f-General the
 Brigade. was wounded.
 After General Grants second bloody
 repulse which occurred at this point
 he again swung his army off by the
 left flank. and about this time gladden.
 ed the hearts of the authorities at
 Washington by his celebrated saying,
 that he was going to fight it out on
 this line, if 1t took all the summer"
 Grant had now come to see that it was
 no easy task, indeed that 1t was we'll nigh impossible. to crush Lee and his
 veterans even with his superior num-
 bers by direct attack. But Lees army
 would not be able. Grant reckoned (and
 correctly tool to withstand heavy and
 continuous losses. Of recruits Lee
 could get few, or none. The resources
 of the Union army were practically un-
 limited. Attrition would finally accom- | plish results. Grant could afford to I
 and ultimately the power of the Army
 of Northern Virginia to continue the
 struggle would come to an end.
 The regiment remained at Spottsyl
 vania, c. H., until the 21st of May. On
 May 24th at Hanover Junction the 8th
 and 11th Alabama made quite a suc-
 cessful movement. Marching by the
 flank through an interval in the
 enemy's lines. they swept down the , line for a distance, and captured fifty five prisoners, with loss of killed and wounded.
 On June 1st the regiment fought at ' Tottopotomy Creek, again losing eight killed and wounded. From this place
 1t marched to the battledfield of Cold HarbOr.
 There Grant had made up his mind , to make another such direct attack up on Lee as he had ventured upon at Spottsylvania and won the 8th Ala
 bama.
 took part in that memorable con
 test, where the consequence of the
 brave but unsuccessful assaults made by the Federal troops was so dtsas-
 trous and appalling that for a short
 time thereafter as historians now rec
 ord, the dismay at Washington and
 throughout the North was such as to
 cause the question to be seriously
 mooted by some eminenet statesmen. whether or not terms of peace should
 be offered to the Confederacy.
 The loss of the Confederates at Cold
 Harbor was relatively inconsiderable;
 they were fairly well entrenched. The
 loss of the Sth Alabama was fifteen.
 killed and wounded. Up to and includ-
 ing the battle of Cold Harbor on the