Smith left for dead: Elzey Succeeds him.
Colonel Elzey was chagrined at
General Smith's superceding
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him and leading the
Maryland regiment to the battle.
Seeing
Smith fall,
Elzey—oblivious to the perilous situation—exclaimed to
Major Bradley T. Johnson: ‘God is just;
Smith is dead!
Johnson, get his horse.
This means for me six feet of ground, or a yellow sash ’-worn only by generals.
The horse ran off and the gallant major was suffering from scurvy.
Elzey, though brave, was presumptive; moreover, he did not possess the calibre of
Smith.
Smith had immortalized himself, and recovering from his almost fatal wound, he returned to us a
Major-General.
The sequence is strange: Almost a year thereafter,
Elzey, commanding his brigade in the
battle of Cold Harbor, received just such a wound as
Smith's, which likewise made him a
Major-General.