Hampton's Legion
Wednesday the 17th, the day opened with a hail storm of shell, grape &
canister shot and until 8 A. M. we had to submit to it, but we heard the order
to forward and off we went. Coming to a fence we had to climb it and then
additionally expose our selves but once over and like a hurricane we swept over
the land. I stood near the flag and saw it fall but being hard at work loading
I did not pick it up though it was raised by a color corporal before I was
ready. Seeing it float again I pressed on.
The first gun I had wouldn't go off; throwing it down I found another when, like the first, [it] wouldn't shoot so I had to get a third, which [at] last fired well. After firing five or six shots I fell, doubled up & lay insensible for a while; as soon as my senses returned I felt a queer sensation on my head & found my right eye closed & ear full of blood & a pool of blood by my side, my rifle thrown one way & hat another. Picking up my cap it bore no trace of a cut on the outside but the inside was much torn. It is really a mercy I was not torn to pieces for it appeared I never saw rain fall faster than the bullets around us.
I fired every shot at the U.S. flags and as fast as [they were] raised they fell again. We rushed to within 50 or 60 yards of their battery and the grape & canister tore immense holes through our ranks. Our reinforcements did not come up, but theirs did & on both flanks and in front we had one continued sheet of flame. All around me the bullets whistled and from a battery far on our right the shells burst upon us. A piece of shell struck me and knocked me stupid.
Never have I seen men fall so fast and thick and in about one hour's time our whole division was almost annihilated. The order was given for us to retreat and slowly, sullenly we fell back but as soon as our reinforcements we forwarded up again and drove them back. As evidence of that fire we had six color bearers shot down: the major [J. Harvey Dingle]was killed holding them up and the others were wounded.
The first gun I had wouldn't go off; throwing it down I found another when, like the first, [it] wouldn't shoot so I had to get a third, which [at] last fired well. After firing five or six shots I fell, doubled up & lay insensible for a while; as soon as my senses returned I felt a queer sensation on my head & found my right eye closed & ear full of blood & a pool of blood by my side, my rifle thrown one way & hat another. Picking up my cap it bore no trace of a cut on the outside but the inside was much torn. It is really a mercy I was not torn to pieces for it appeared I never saw rain fall faster than the bullets around us.
I fired every shot at the U.S. flags and as fast as [they were] raised they fell again. We rushed to within 50 or 60 yards of their battery and the grape & canister tore immense holes through our ranks. Our reinforcements did not come up, but theirs did & on both flanks and in front we had one continued sheet of flame. All around me the bullets whistled and from a battery far on our right the shells burst upon us. A piece of shell struck me and knocked me stupid.
Never have I seen men fall so fast and thick and in about one hour's time our whole division was almost annihilated. The order was given for us to retreat and slowly, sullenly we fell back but as soon as our reinforcements we forwarded up again and drove them back. As evidence of that fire we had six color bearers shot down: the major [J. Harvey Dingle]was killed holding them up and the others were wounded.
… I am quite well, and suffer from my head to the right.
The wound is more than an inch long, on the scalp, and just touching the bone.
I am thankful my life is spared, for surely it seems no one had a more narrow escape
than myself. My spirits are up at high water mark. . . .
Texans at Antietam: A Terrible Clash of Arms, September
16-17, 1862
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