So it may be true, but Corporal Mansfield played at a game of cards in the agitation of the impending battle and coolly talked of the game and the issue of the contest, in which they were engaged. And a short while later on that clear August day the bugle sounded the advance and not one of the Tenth Maine band were found lurking in the rear, and like heroes they boldly marched to the front, and here Corporal Mansfield received his mortal wound in the fatal wheat-field and marching on, driven by the enemy to the dividing river. Hungry, hardly a moment of sleep, always alert and watchful, bearing up under disaster in our extremity, many a heroic soldier fell exhausted in the valley of the Rappahannock, and so on past the gleaming capitol, and on the day at Antietam where the fate of the nation hung in the balance, our fearless "Pompey" Mason faced the Confederates in the cornfield and gave his life in the struggle with the foe. THE BUGLE CALL. by Frank J. Bradbury, Tenth Maine Infantry. Bugler, bugler, your thrilling war sound, No more is heard on the famed battle ground; Soldiers would rally at your battle-call, The bravest and best, the sooner to fall. The night dews are chill; the bivouac is cold, Bugler, bugler, there is peace and sweet rest, Over the river in the camp of the blest; The march has been weary, the night damps cold, Rest, comrade, rest, in the great Captain's fold. OUR MOTHER ENGLAND. ECHOES. H. M. Williams, captain First Bucks Rifle Volunteers of Wolverton, Eng., writes: I have much pleasure in inclosing post-office order for the amount of my subscription to the MAINE BUGLE for the current year. I am much in terested in the BUGLE. I have also been greatly interested in the excellent history of the First Maine cavalry, which I obtained through you. I wish you and the Maine Association every success. FIRST MAINE HEAVY ARTILLERY. THE CHARGE OF JUNE 18, 1864. James H. Sherrill of Catawba, N. C., writes Major Fred C. Low: to your dead comrades I at once recalled our correspondence, and am glad I can furnish you the desired information. While we were there an officer of Colquitt's command came up, and we had a long talk over the charge of your troops and their defense. He had written a history of the engagement as he recollected it, and read it in my presence. On March 25, 1865, our regiment charged your works on the same ground your regiment made the charge in June, 1864, and was forced to retire after taking your first line of defense and your fort immediately on the hill which our boys designated as Fort Hell. You called it, if I remember correctly, Fort Steadman. I regret I did not I attended the annual reunion of take the Georgia officer's address and Confederate veterans at Richmond, send you. Your regiment surely June 30 to July 3, and during my walked into a slaughter-house, and stay in that city I visited Petersburg my recollection is that your troops and the old trenches around that were cut down near our line. Our city, and am now prepared to write brigade occupied the trenches from you definitely what troops confronted the Petersburg and City Point Road your regiment June 18, 1864. It to our right as far as the Crater nine was Colquitt's Georgia brigade, and months, except when we were taken was known to our troops as Col- to our right once or twice near the quitt's Salient. From your descrip- Weldon Railroad to drive your forces tion of the ground over which you back, but never absent more than two charged, I concluded your regiment days at a time. I would not underwas in our immediate front. We go the sufferings we endured there were only a short distance to the during the winter of '64 for a world. right of Colquitt, and relieved his like this. It was an absolute imposcommand on the evening of the 18th, sibility to procure firewood to make or morning of the 19th. During my us comfortable, and the moment our entire service in the war I never saw heads were above the works we were as many dead on such a small piece picked off by your sharpshooters. of ground. We had a pleasant time at Richmond, On seeing the monument erected and apparently more old "Vets" present than we had troops during the war. The monument and grounds at Fort Steadman need attention. Hope you will be able to strike up a correspondence with some of the Georgia boys. May God in his Providence bless you in your declining years. THE NEW COMMANDER IN-CHIEF, Major Thaddeus Stevens Clarkson of Nebraska, who was elected commander-in-chief of the G. A. R. at the annual encampment at St. Paul, was born at Gettysburg, Pa., in 1840. He moved to Chicago in 1857, and enlisted April 16, 1861, in Company A, First Illinois artillery, as a private, serving three months and reenlisting for three years. In December, 1861, he was promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant, Thirteenth Illinois cavalry, serving during 1863 on the staff of Brigadier-General J. W. Davidson, and by assignment commanding Battery K, Second Missouri artillery, for six months during the Arkansas campaign of 1863. He was made major of the Third Arkansas cavalry December, 1863, and commanded the same until near the close of the war. He was elected department commander of Nebraska in 1890, and junior vicecommander-in-chief in 1891. He was appointed postmaster of Omaha, Neb., in 1890, by President Harrison, serving four and one-half years. BUNKER HILL, MASS., AND SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, S. C. Francis J. M. Titus, of Joelton, Davidson Co., Tenn., late corporal Company F, Seventh Indiana cavalry, writes: It is with feelings of profound gratitude I join your association. Patriotism is to me a jewel of intrinsic worth and no language can adequately express my ardor and zeal in its behalf. It is with profound pride I refer to the record of my father, also that of both my grandfathers; one lies buried at Bunker Hill, the other sleeps on Sullivan's Island, while father was wounded at the Battle of New Orleans. I am left alone as the last vidette on the field, so let me shout "Hosanna for the land of the noble free." MAINE HAS MUCH TO BE PROUD OF. Charles B. Price, superintendent River division, Allegheny Valley Railway Company, Pittsburg, Pa., writes: I congratulate you on your excellent publication. The state of Maine has much to be proud of in the record and reputation of her fighting regiments; and she is a second time fortunate in the manner in which the history of her sons is being pre served. IT IS A GRAND BOOK. Bradley Smith, lieutenant Company A, Ninth Maine Infantry, of San Jose, Cal., writes: The history of the First Maine cavalry was received in due time. It is a grand book. A state should be proud of its soldiers of the late war. When it came, I read it as I eat watermelon-bite a piece out of the middle and then eat both ways. It should be in the private library of every citizen of Maine, and in every public library in the United States. THE THIRTIETH MAINE. G, Twenty-eighth Maine, in the adjutant-general's report, 1863. Both were young, especially Jones, and were great friends. I think C. L. Coffin, 354 Ohio St., Bangor, they belonged in Washington, Me. Me., writes: I insisted at my reunion that some action should be taken to have some historic articles pertaining to the Thirtieth Maine appear in the BUGLE; that the regiment's records were something to be proud of by its members and also by the state. I will at once correspond with the prominent comrades of the regiment and see if there can not be something interesting attained for January, 1897. There is a lack of interest; perhaps if some one would introduce the subject in the BUGLE, others might follow. COMPANY G, TWENTY-EIGHTH MAINE. Lieutenant John F. Perry, of Minneapolis, Minn., late of Company G. Twenty-eighth Maine Infantry, writes: now I was pleased and interested to see in the July number of the BUGLE a partial copy of the morning report book of Company G, Twenty-eighth Maine infantry, my old company. It refreshed my memory greatly. I notice a few slight errors. Capt. Augustus Thompson, who is living in Lowell, Mass., should read Augustine. He is the inventor and. proprietor of Moxie, a nerve food. It also says the names of the two men from Company G, taken prisoners, are not given nor known. Their names were Madison T. Jones and Charles E. Pinkham. You will find their names as members of Company They were captured by being surprised on picket post, not even firing their guns. They were on the only post across the Bayou LaTourche, when the flag of truce was sent in to Major Bullen, commanding the post to surrender, or clear the town. of Donaldsonville of women and children. His reply was that he would do the latter but would not surrender. surrender. In consequence of this demand the pickets were doubled that night and two more men of Company G were sent across the bayou, and posted some distance from Jones and Pinkham, and when the enemy approached, after passing Jones and Pinkham's post, and capturing them, the men last sent across gave the alarm and secreted themselves under a house and escaped capture. The comrades will all remember that the houses in that part of the country stood upon piling to keep out of the water during the wet seasons. The men sent over the bayou bayou who gave the first alarm were Timothy Robinson, a man of forty or more years, NOTE. Charles E. Pinkham, after his discharge from Company G, Twenty-eighth Maine, enlisted December 19, 1863, in Company L, Second Maine cavalry, and served till discharged at Augusta, Me., December 26, 1865. He was pensioned for injury of right ankle, disease of head and eyes and nervous prostration, results of typhoid fever and small pox, and died at Liberty, Me., January, 28, 1884, leaving a widow, Isabella, whose maiden name was Campbell, and three minor children, Everett M. C., Mary G., and Hattie L. and Eli R. Perry, my younger brother, at that time nineteen years of age, and a corporal in Company M. When the guard was doubled, the call was for volunteers and not a detail, and as Robinson and Perry happened to be in the first file they were sent over the bayou, told to keep good lookout and give the alarm and take care of themselves. Robinson was from the interior of the state, I do not recollect just where. He was a good soldier and a level-headed man. He must be a very old man if living. My brother died eleven years since, near Crook City, Black Hills, So. Dakota. His remains lie in the cemetery in Crook City, beside his little daugh ter. 66 He has one son and one daughter living in Tacoma, Washington. After serving in the Twenty-eighth Maine, he enlisted and was afterward commissioned second lieutenant in Capt. Oliver J. Conant's Company B," Maine Coast Guards. Captain Conant, who is a member of Libby Post, Rockland, will remember him well. I hope you will pardon this long-drawn epistle, but that old morning report book of Company G is responsible for it. It revives old memories as they have not been for years, and I could go on in this strain for hours, but it would probably interest no one so much as myself. Perhaps I am excusable because I have none of my old comrades within shot to talk these old matters over with, and this old report seems like an old friend. I can account for most of the breaks in the report. The first, from January 14, 1863, to Jan. 30, 1863, was at the time we were en route from East New York to New Orleans, etc. THE SIXTH OHIO CAVALRY. Captain A. W. Stiles of Delaware, O., late of Sixth Ohio Cavalry, writes: You certainly are entitled to great credit for the able management of the "BUGLE." I read it with much interest, every number is so intensely interesting to me. Your regiment (First Maine Cavalry), was one of the best in the service. FORT BLAKELY. James J. Dow, Superintendent of Minnesota School for the Blind, Faribault, Minn., late of Company F, Second Maine Cavalry, writes: Comrade Charles W. Sanborn en quires in the July Echoes what Maine regiments were at the capture of Fort Blakely in April, 1865. A detachment of the Second Maine Cavalry was the only Maine organization on the Mobile expedition. Indeed no Maine troops except the Second Cavalry were in the Department of the Gulf after the fall of 1864. After the surrender of Mobile this detachment of cavalry accompanied I do not know the wounded man the Sixteenth Corps to Montgomery. ferred to. re I prize the BUGLE very highly and trust it may long continue to wake. the memories of the "sixties." NOTE. We wish to return our compliments to the Sixth Ohio Cavalry, for their leadership and valuable help in the days of '61-5, and our desire that their good comrades would renew our happy acquaintance by giving facts of their service. |