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[250] when he led the regiment to the charge. Captain Lathrop was in the rear, acting as Major. Efforts were made to persuade the Major to order the charge and take his station in the rear, but without success. Waving his sword, and leading on the charge, he was seen to fall; and the cry went forth, ‘The Major is down!’ A lad in the regiment, by the name of Krill, seems to have been the first to go to his assistance, having seen him at the moment he was shot; but he was not strong enough to lift him. Private Estes then started to his support, and was helping him through the lines to the rear, when Captain Lathrop came up on the other side, and the two attempted to take him from the field. They had proceeded but a rod or two, when he said, ‘You must let me lie down: I can't go any farther.’ They laid him down, put him in a blanket, and endeavored to place him out of the range of the fire; but the Rebels enfilading the road, they removed him just below the bank. Here there was a shelter from the front fire; and by a little bend in the road, from the cross-fire also. Captain Lathrop lay down by his side. Here, with the consciousness of death upon him, after sending the tenderest message to the loved ones at home, and in submission saying, ‘But God's will be done,’ he added, ‘Tell them I tried to do my duty to my country and to the regiment’; and also expressed his desire to be buried at Mount Auburn. Within a half-hour or an hour two soldiers appeared with a stretcher, and bore him upon it to the hospital of a Connecticut regiment. He was in pain, but never moaned nor exclaimed. Towards night the surgeon gave him whiskey and morphine; but he doubted whether to take it, saying that he had never drunk whiskey. However, he was induced to consent, and soon became easier. He was thirsty, and wanted water, which was brought; but from self-control, says the Captain, he would not drink, but only rinsed his mouth. About nine o'clock on Sunday morning, Captain Lathrop was obliged to be absent to attend to the regiment, now reduced
Sever and Francis, 1866.
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