Transcription

                                                       7

upon our right, and guards our flank, but hour

after hour the lines wither and bleed as fresh

columns of the enemy again and again make

desparate efforts to force them. It is three oclock

our amunitiion is nearly expended. The brave

Jerseymen are gradually being forced back by the

terrible odds against which they struggle, Webbers'

battery is silent, his artillerymen are dead beneath

the guns they so gallantly fought. Give us amunition

we cry, for God's sake send us amunition or we

cannot hold our ground, but alas there is none

at hand, the wagons are helplessly sunk to their

axles in the mud, miles in our rear, We tear the

cartridge boxes from our wounded and dead and

rob them of their precious contents, Again has Hooker

sent a dispairing message to Sumner for

help, the returning Courier hands him an envelope

he eagerly seizes and opens it, it is his own appeal

endorsed, "Opened by the General in Command", but it

promises no aid; Our last cartirdge has been

expended, The yeilding left leaves our flank open

to assault, The enemy are quick to discover the advantage

and pour their musketry in a fierce storm against it

The heavy slashing make it impossible to execute a

change of front, We are driven helplessly through the

slashing across the road, on through the slashing to

the left and back to the fringe of the forest, Hooker

seizes his two remaining regiments and hurls them

into the breach, again the enemy recoil but our brave

leader feels that it is a last despairing effort for our

amunition is gone, But though Summers Ears

have been deaf to our peril and Suffering, there was

one Struggling along the road from Yorktown, whose

Chivelrous Soul could not be deaf to the Eloquent appeal

of Hookers hot and angry guns, It was that of General

Philip Kearney, "The white lily of chivalry" Scorning

the obstructed road and divesting his men of every

impediment to their progress, through swamp and

brake he presses in eager haste, his Soul aflame with

the ardor of battle, and generous sympathy with a comrades peril