During  this  advance  of  Hooker,  which,  we  confess,
was  not  very  successful  and  attended  with  loss,  the
Twenty-third  Corps,  or  a  good  part  of  it,  was  brought
over  to  aid  Hooker  and  me  at  any  instant  when  Hooker
should  make  a  break  through  the  enemy's  main  line.
It  is  said  one  regiment,  the  Seventieth  Indiana,
sprang  from  a  thicket  upon  the  lunette  and,  as  they
came  on,  the  Confederate  artillerists  blazed  away
without  checking  our  men.  They  entered  the  embra-
sures ;  they  shot  the  gunners.
In  this  effort  Ward  was  badly  wounded.  Colonel
Benjamin  Harrison  immediately  took  his  place  and
gallantly  continued  the  work.
The  fire  from  intrenchments  behind  the  lunette
became  severe,  being  delivered  in  volley  after  volley;
too  severe  to  render  it  proper  to  remain  there ;  so  that
Harrison,  getting  ready  to  make  another  vigorous  ad-
vance, drew  back  his  line  a  few  yards  under  cover  of
the  lunette  hill.
Here  a  color  bearer  by  the  name  of  Hess,  One  Hun-
dred and  Twenty-ninth  Illinois,  chagrined  to  hear  the
shrill,  triumphant  cry  of  the  Confederates,  at  once  un-
furled his  flag,  swinging  it  toward  them  in  defiance.
He  instantly  fell,  but  other  hands  grasped  the  flag,  and
it  came  back  only  to  return  and  wave  from  the  very
spot  where  its  former  bearer  fell.
In  the  most  determined  way  those  four  guns  were
now  defended  by  the  blue  and  gray,  costing  many
lives;  but  there  they  stayed  hereafter  in  the  middle

517


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard

space,  unused  by  either  party,  till  dark.  The  Confed-
erates then  made  a  bold  charge  to  retake  them,  but  our
men  promptly  and  successfully  repelled  the  charge.
Finally,  the  picks  and  spades  were  brought  up  by  our
soldiers,  and  our  defenders  dug  their  way  to  the  guns.
