South Carolinas in the Field.
The Life and correspondence of
Gen. John A Quitman is published.
The following is an extract of the description of the battle of
Churubusco:
‘
Colonel Butler, of the South Carolinas, had left his sick bed against the remonstrances of his friends to lead the Palmettos to the combat.
Early in the engagement his horse was shot under him. Soon after he received a painful wound in the knee, and yielded the command to
Lieutenant-Colonel Dickinson.--Taking the
Palmetto flag from the hands of
Sergeant Beggs,
Dickinson placed himself in front, and
Beggs was immediately shot down.
Col. Butler new came up to resume the command, and was killed by the side of
Dickinson while standing under the flag.
Dickinson himself soon fail mortally wounded, (he died some weeks afterward,) and
Major Gladden received it from his hands and committed it to
Lieut. Baker, who being unable, from debility and exhaustion, to carry it,
Major Gladden placed it in the hands of
Patrick Leonard, and led his regiment to the charge.
His men fell rapidly, but not one wavered, from first to last, under the concentrated fire of the enemy.
In the whole history of war there has never been a more striking example of indifference to death, the result of stern resolve.
Each man fought for the honor of
Carolina.
Several companies were almost annihilated.
Some had not men enough left to bury their dead, or bear their wounded to the ambulances.--The uniforms of some of the officers were literally torn from their persons; the color-bearers were shot down; but the flag, bathed in their blood, was always seized as they fell and borne to the front.
Proudly it floated through the tempest of death until the victory had been was, and then, all torn and blood-stained, it drooped over its own glorious dead.--The regiment entered the battle with 273, rank and file, and when it was over it mustered 169!
It had no missing; its dead and wounded made up the deficiency.
Cadets of a noble State, sort of a sunny clime.
branded by their country as traitors for defending the
Constitution and their rights from usurpation and outrage, yet dying cheerfully for that country in a foreign land — the world may learn that such a race, in defence of their own homesteads and institutions, can never be subdued!
’
