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[164] the men to load and fix bayonets. Immediately the brigade moved up the ravine as ordered. As we started a soldier, worse disfigured by dirt, powder and smoke than any I had before seen, came up to my side and said: ‘Captain, can I go in this charge with you?’ I replied: ‘Yes. Who are you?’ He said: ‘I am—–(I have forgotten his name), and I belong to ——South Carolina regiment. I was blown up in that fort, and I want to even up with them. Please take my name, and if I get killed inform my officers of it.’ I said: ‘I have no time now for writing. How high up did they blow you?’ He said: ‘I don't know; but as I was going up I met the company commissary coming down, and he said: “I will try to have breakfast ready by the time you get back.” ’ I have often since wished that even under those desperate circumstances, I had taken his name and regiment, for he was truly a ‘rough diamond,’ a brave fellow. He went in the charge with us, but I do not know whether he survived it or not. I never saw him again; but if he is alive and this page should ever meet his eye, I trust he will write to me. Wilcox's old brigade, then commanded and led by the gallant and intrepid brigadier general, J. C. C. Saunders, as above stated, with Capt. George Clark, another brave office, assistant adjutant general, was composed of the following regiments: Eighth Alabama, Capt. M. W. Mordecai commanding; Ninth Alabama, Col. J. H. King commanding; Tenth Alabama, Capt. W. L. Brewster commanding; Eleventh Alabama, Lieut. Col. George P. Tayloe commanding; Fourteenth Alabama, Capt. Elias Folk commanding.
Richmond, VA. 1908.
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