Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/435

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
410
CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

"Then I will take it," he replied. He rejoined his command in time for Chancellorsville, where he led his brigade (Archer's) on the second day. Here he was again wounded, but did not leave his regiment until Gettysburg, commanding it or the brigade until that battle. The Thirteenth Alabama, with Archer's brigade, Heth's division, was among the first to be engaged in the hard fighting for position at Gettysburg, July 1st, and after the capture of General Archer that day he took command of the brigade, and led it in the second furious assault. "Colonel Fry judiciously changed his front," said General Heth, "thus protecting the right flank of the division during the engagement. This brigade (Archer's), the heroes of Chancellorsville, fully maintained its hard-won and well-deserved reputation." On July 3d his brigade was on the right of the division, under Pettigrew, and was the brigade of direction for the whole force, being immediately on the left of Pickett's division. He led it gallantly up Cemetery ridge, under a fire which melted away his line, until he reached the stone wall, where he fell, shot through the shoulder and the thigh, and again became a prisoner of war. He lay in field hospital six days; then was taken to the hospital at Fort McHenry, and in October was sent to the Federal prison on Johnson's island, in Lake Erie. By a special exchange he returned to the army in Virginia in March, 1864. He was ordered to take command of Barton's brigade at Drewry's bluff, and led it in the battle in which Beauregard drove back Butler's army. Being sent now to Lee, Gen. A. P. Hill placed him in command of Archer's and Walker's brigades, and this force, with some other troops, he led in the second battle of Cold Harbor, holding the left of the Confederate line. On May 24, 1864, he had been promoted brigadier-general, and a few days after the battle of Cold Harbor he was ordered to Augusta, Ga., to command a district embracing parts of South Carolina and Georgia. This he held until the close of the war. He