Part 24 (1/2)
”As soon as this was done I gave the order to cease firing and fix bayonets, and followed that immediately with the order to charge the battery.
”These orders were executed with a courage and daring seldom equaled by even older troops, and never excelled by a volunteer regiment.
”In less than two minutes from the time the charge was ordered, the rebel battery was in our possession, and out of thirty-six horses used in the battery, but two were left standing when we pa.s.sed the guns.
”Most of the artillery-men lay dead and wounded around the battery while the line of infantry support in the rear of battery, fell back in disorder before our bayonets; not, however, until many of them had for the first time felt the effects of cold steel.
”The charge, though b.l.o.o.d.y on both sides, was pre-eminently successful, and my regiment, ”the 2nd Iron Clads,” as it was called, brought away the battery so captured.
”In the charge, the regiment lost in killed and wounded, some forty odd men and officers. All of our horses, field and staff, were shot and most of them killed. The color bearer Harrison Young, a hero among men, was wounded and fell, raised to his feet and was again twice wounded. A comrade then took the flag and was wounded, and a third man brought it off the field.
”A wounded lieutenant of the battery was brought to me, as a prisoner;[25] but in view of the ma.s.sacre of colored troops by the rebels at Fort Pillow and other places, I sent the Lieutenant immediately back through the lines, pointing him to the regiment that had made the charge, and telling him that since the rebel authorities had concluded to take no prisoners, belonging to colored regiments, it would hardly be proper for me to hold him as a prisoner; that they had established the precedent, and that in so far as I was concerned, they could 'lay on MacDuff.' The Lieutenant rejoined his command a sadder if not a wiser man.
”After the charge I moved with my regiment to the centre, where the battle was then raging hottest. Here it remained in the thickest of the fight until an advance was ordered all along the line, which was made, the enemy falling back slowly before our troops, and finally retired from the field, leaving us in full possession, with a complete victory.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PHALANX SOLDIERS BRINGING IN A CAPTURED BATTERY]
”Only infantry was engaged on either side except the rebel battery, which my regiment captured.
”Our cavalry, some five thousand strong, and artillery, about forty pieces, as already stated, were on the North side of the river, and could not be brought into action, to advantage, on account of the dense forest and swampy nature of the ground. We had about fifteen thousand men engaged, while the enemy had the armies of Price and Kirby Smith, from which our _gallant_ commander, Steele, had for many days been fleeing, as from the wrath to come. During the entire battle Steele remained on the north side of the river, beyond the reach of the enemy's guns, and at a point from which he could continue his flight with safety in case of defeat. But the victory was ours, so the march from Saline river to Little Rock was made in peace.
”During this battle my regiment lost in killed and wounded about eighty men, but we were richly rewarded by the achievements of the day. We, perhaps, had as much to do with bringing on the battle as any other one regiment. I went into action in the morning without orders. In fact I disobeyed an order to cross the river at daylight, and instead, I formed my regiment and faced the enemy. The regiment charged the battery by my orders, and against an order from a superior officer, to hold back and wait for orders.
”My regiment, though among the first in action, and having suffered a greater loss than that of any other, was the last to leave the field.
”From this time forward until the close of the war, in so far as the Western army was concerned, we heard no more of the question, 'Will they fight?'
”The reputation of at least one colored regiment was established, and it stands to-day, in the estimation of men who served in the Western army, as the equal of any other volunteer regiment.
”After the Saline river battle the regiment moved back to Little Rock and thence to Fort Smith, in western Arkansas.
”In July 1864, with the 2nd and other troops, I conducted an expedition through the Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory, against, or rather in pursuit of a brigade of rebel forces, driving them out of that country. During this campaign several light engagements were fought, in each of which the 2nd took a prominent part, and in each of which the 2nd was invariably successful.
”In the fall of 1864[26], I resigned my position as Colonel to a.s.sume other duties.
”What took place from then until the regiment was mustered out of service, I only know from heresay, but it is safe to say that the regiment maintained its reputation as one of the best infantry regiments in the 7th Army Corps.
”A short time before I left the regiment, General Marcy, then Inspector General of the U.S. Army, inspected the Kansas Division, to which my regiment belonged, and his report, which is now on file in the War Department, if I am not mistaken, shows that the 2nd Colored in point of drill, discipline and military appearance, stood first of all the regiments in that Division.
”Yours truly,
”SAMUEL J. CRAWFORD.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gilpatrick, promoted from Major, took command of the regiment succeeding Colonel Crawford, and in December made a forced march to Hudson's crossing on the Neosho river, by way of Fort Gibson, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, on quarter rations, and returned as escort to a large supply train. It was then, with all the Phalanx regiments at Fort Smith, ordered to Little Rock, where it arrived with a very large train of refugees under charge, on the 4th of February, after a march of seventeen days.
Colonel Gilpatrick says:
”The men suffered severely on the march by exposure to wet and cold and for the want of proper and sufficient food, clothing and shelter. Many of them were barefooted, almost naked, and without blankets.”