[141]
 |
| The day after the magnificent assault that failed As the camera snapped, October 5, 1862, every object in this picture was a tragedy. Directly in the foreground lies a Confederate soldier who had swept along in the grand and terrible charge against the ramparts of Battery Robinett, to fall within fifty yards of the goal. Even nearer the battery lies the battle-charger of the colonel of the Texas Brigade. And to the left has been reverently laid the body of Colonel Rogers himself — the brave leader who leaped from his dying horse, seized the colors, and on foot dashed up the parapet straight into the last charge of grape-shot. “Then,” writes one of the Federal defenders (General John Crane, the adjutant of the Seventeenth Wisconsin), “we learned who it was--Colonel William P. Rogers, of the Second Texas. General Rosecrans asked us to uncover his face; he said, ‘He was one of the bravest men that ever led a charge. Bury him with military honors and mark his grave so that his friends may claim him.’ ” Colonel Rogers is said to have been the fifth standard-bearer to fall in that last desperate charge of the Texas Brigade. |
