li* large---tock of fine L ao fie* old
w ' liqururt an. superfine
•• / v • Ma«’/-o‘- u■ | n >wr
UM!®.?, xiruer Sixteenth aac
enemy** infantry held up the impetuous
aMHilauts Instantly the field b.tt« i>
opened wi>h canister, and h cross fin* <4
musketry on one flank was added as a I . t
straw. But the camel’s Lack didn't I
The Vermonters went down in sw
literally, but there was a show <»f th«-i
standing. Taking breath, they i
closed in and dropped under a shrlt ■..
rise of ground, and kept up the light
bullets. Their sixty rounds of cartin' •-
didn’t bold out long, but the pouch* ■ ■ f
the dead were well filled, and for fre-h
muskets, when their own became hot and
foul, they also relieved their dead corn
rades. The enemy was pushed back. and
I the brave fellows held them back until the
crisis was over and the rearguard sum
; moned to take up the march and follow
. the army’ toward James river.
The Fifth, alas! didn’t all march back,
and those who did went under protest, de
claring that they had held their ground
and won the day. The regiment was 4'X)
strong when it charged, ami 72 dead, with
131 wounded, was the price of its daring.
The heaviest loss occurred in front of
(’apt. Del Kemper’s Virginia battery.
Two companies, E and 11, that were al
most at the mouths of Kemper's guns, lost
30 men at otie discharge, and the bodies
lay on the field in a perfect line as though
sleeping on their arms. In Company E, 4U
out of 56 were struck down, 25 of them
killed.
Four brothers —Hiram, Silas, William
and Edward Cummings—their cousin, W.
