200 Southern Hiftiorical Society Papers.
ing his sword, he called aloud, urging his men to follow their flag. But the flag had gone too far and they did not follow. Before M > much bravery anger seemed to give way to admiration, and of those thousand muskets still warm with the fire which had thinned his ranks, there was but one that had the courage to fire and the color- bearer fell.
He was, doubtless, killed in conformity with the usages of civilized warfare. Nevertheless we were sorry to see him fall, and the body of that dead enemy, lying beside the flag he had so bravely carried, formed an image which rose far above that of the living who had killed him.
If anything can ever bring reconciliation between such foes, it is the respect which such bravery must ever command.
The flag did not remain long on the ground. A man stepped for- ward and raised it. For several minutes these two men stood on the hill, looking defiantly in the very eyes of death which glared at them from every muzzle of a thousand guns. Despairing to bring his men to the assault, the officer and his solitary companion finally returned to the shelter offered by the declivity at the foot of the hill and the threatened charge was not attempted again.
In the meantime, General Longstreet, who had seen this advance and shelter behind that hill, apprehended the very assault which was attempted a few minutes later, and perceiving that this gun of ours was the only one that could reach it, he sent Major Osman Latrobe, ordering the commanding officer thereof to direct his fire against that body of the enemy in order to dislodge it.
But to execute this order, it was necessary, first of all, to move the gun out of the pit, because it could not be depressed within range of the objective point without bringing the muzzle below the epaule- ment and against the wall of the pit. And to take it out at this mo- ment was tantamount to sending it, with its whole detachment, to almost certain destruction without hardly any hope of success. But even to move it out could not be done unless it were done between shots, and to do this between shots was almost impossible, because these shots were following each other so rapidly that they shut us down, as it were, under solid bars of iron projectiles.
So far we had had a pic-nic. So far it had been child's play. But now our cannoneers had before them work fit to try any man's soul! And, thank God, they did it like men whose souls had been tried.
