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ment, and when about giving orders to charge, he was killed, falling ten feet in advance of his column.

One of the bravest of the brave was Lieutenant Bramhall, of the New York Ninth. He was in command of two pieces of artillery, one of which was left on the island when the advance was made. During the fight he was wounded by a spent ball in his back, and had two other bullets pass through him, through his side. He was carried to the island. When the rout took place, he asked Rev. Mr. Scanlan what he should do with his battery, where he should place it to cover the retreat. Then, as the thought flashed into his mind, said, "I will place it to cover Conrad's Ferry." And though thus wounded, he called two soldiers to his aid, who carried him in their arms round the island, and sustained him while he placed his battery in position! He was about 23 years of age. Besides these wounds, he had six bullets pass through his clothes and hat. One struck the scabbard of his sword. It was only till he had got every thing right about his guns that he would allow himself to be brought from the island.

A German sergeant, on seeing his captain fall, toward the close of the fight, collected four or five files of his company, about a dozen men altogether, and crying, "Boys, we can only die once; we'll avenge the captain's death." led them fighting into the very heart of the enemy's position. He immediately disappeared, and nothing was afterward seen of him or any of his band.

The officers and men behaved with the most extraordinary courage. They were pressed by an overpowering force, but stood firm until their whole supply of ammunition was exhausted, and then retreated to the river, and threw their guns and swords into it to prevent the enemy getting possession of them. Colonel Raymond Lee and staff were furnished with a skiff to make their escape. The Colonel gallantly refused, and gave orders to use it for conveying the wounded. across the river. It was filled with wounded, who reached the Maryland shore in safety, and the humane and gallant officer was taken prisoner.

Many of the survivors of the fight escaped by swimming. Captain Crowninsheld, long known in Harvard as the strokeoar of the boat club, swam to Harrison's Island, without clothing, and saving nothing but his watch, which he carried in his mouth. Being greatly fatigued, he turned in beneath the most convenient hay-rick, and slept till morning, when, in the hurry of departure, and the especial anxiety of procuring clothes, he departed without giving a thought to the watch which he had taken such pains to keep possession of the night before, and which he had tucked away beside him before going to sleep.

coat.

A story was related of an Irishman in company D, of the Massachusetts Fifteenth, which is very funny. When the retreat was ordered, he threw off his coat and pants and plunged into the icy current of the Potomac. He swam boldly across the river, and had just gained the Maryland shore, when he remembered that he had left $13 25 in the pocket of his "Be jabers, Billy," said he, "thim thirteen dollars is in me coat, and the bloody ribels will git 'em, and besides, I can't consint to part with the amount, so I'll jist go for them," and in he plunged again. He got safely over, found his coat, secured his money, and recrossed the river. I saw him in camp this afternoon, and congratulated him on his pluck, endurance and success, to which he replied, "Oh, yis sir, 'twas all I'd saved from my three months' sarvice, and I'm very fond of me pipe."

A most exciting scene transpired at the sinking of the launch, in which were some sixty wounded men, and twenty or thirty members of the California First. The launch had been safely taken half way across the river, when, to their utter consternation, it was discovered that it was leaking, and the water gradually, but surely, gaining upon them. The wounded were lying on the bottom of the launch-some shot in the head, others mangled by the tramp of cavalry, and others suffering intolerably from their various dislocations, wounds and injuries, and all soaking in water, which, at the very start, was fully four inches deep. As the water grew

deeper and rose above the prostrate forms of the woun iled,. their comrades lifted them into sitting postures, that they might not be strangled by the fast-rising stream. Despite all that could be done, the fate of the launch, and all that were in

, with the exception of a few expert swimmers, was sealed; suddenly, and like a flash of lightning, the rotten craft sank, carrying with it at least fifty dying, mangled, groaning sufferers, and some twenty or thirty others, who had trusted their lives to its treacherous hold.

After all was finished, and the fragments of the regiments were brought together at the water's edge, it was determined to push upward along the shore, with the uncertain hope of finding some means of recrossing to the Maryland side. In the event of meeting the enemy, however, it was determined to surrender at once, since any contest under the circumstances would be a uscless sacrifice of life. After progressing a mile or so, the officers (Captains Bartlett and Tremlett, and Lieutenants Whittier and Abbott) discovered a mill, surrounded by cottages, about which numbers of persons were seen moving. Here it seemed that they must yield. The officers ordered a halt, and directed the men to cast all their arms into the river, so that the enemy should gain as little as possible by the surrender. Lieutenant Whittier walked on in advance with a white handkerchief tied on his sword, to be used when occasion should demand. The first person met was an old negro, who, though greatly terrified, contrived to reveal that an old boat was stored near the mill, which might be bailed out and used to convey the fugitives across the river. A gift of five dollars insured his services, and the boat was in due time launched and ready for use. It was small, and only a few could pass at each trip. Until dawn it passed back and forth, until all were transferred in safety. One officer went over in the third boat, to keep the men well together on the Maryland side; the others waited till the last. For that service the old negro was afterwards dreadfully whipped, and only escaped more tortures by "passing over Jordan"crossing the Potomac and making his way to Pennsylvania.

Before starting upon the expedition on Monday morning, the men had left their knapsacks and blankets upon Harrison's Island. In the retreat it was impossible for more than a few to gather them up again. A Lieutenant volunteered on Wednesday, after the island had been visited by the rebel scouts, to go over with five and collect what remained. He did so, and returned with more than a hundred knapsacks and blankets, to the great comfort of many of the men who had suf fered from the icy weather. While there, the men scoured nearly the whole island, but could not be persuaded to enter the building which had been used as a hospital, in which so many corpses of their former comrades lay.

The loss of the Federals in this affair never was accurately stated. About seventy were killed; as many were drowned and shot in the water; over one hundred and fifty were wounded; and about four hundred were taken prisoners. The rebel General in command, Evans, in his report of the affair, stated his forces to have been twenty-five hundred, and his loss to have been three hundred killed and wounded. The Federal force, all told, was seventeen hundred and fifty.

NOTE.-As to the responsibility of the movement made, and of the surprise, the following orders will afford duc light; they were found in the Colonel's hat, underneath the lining. Both were deeply stained with Colonel Baker's blood, and one of the bullets, which went through his head, carried away a corner of the first:

EDWARDS' FERRY, October 21st, 1861.

Colonel E. D. Baker, Commander of Brigade:

COLONEL: In case of heavy firing in front of Harrison's Island, you will advance the California regiment of your brigade, or retire the regiments under Colonels Lee and Devens, now on the [almost rendered illegible by blood] Virginia side of the river, at your discretion-assuming command on arrival. Very respectfully, Colonel, your most obedient servant,

CHARLES P. STONE, Brigadier-General Commanding. The second order, which follows, was delivered on the battle-field by Colonel Cogswell, who said to Colonel Baker, in reply to a question what it meant, "All right, go ahead." Thereupon, Colonel Baker put it in his hat without reading. An hour afterward he fell.

EDWARDS' FERRY, October 22d--11:50.

E. D. BAKER, COMMANDING BRIGADE-COLONEL: I am informed that the force

of the enemy is about four thousand, all told. If you can push them, you may do so as far as to have a strong position near] Leesburg, if you can keep them befere you, avoiding their batteries. If they pass Leesburg and take the Gum Springs road, you will not follow far, but seize the first good position to cover that road. Their desire is to draw us on, if they are obliged to retreat as far as Goose creek, where they can be re-enforced from Manassas, and have a strong position. Report frequently, so that, when they are pushed, Gorman can come up on their flauk. Yours, respectfully and truly, CHARLES P. STONE, Brigadier-General Commanding.

This little error of the Colonel-in not reading the last dispatch— was the cause of the surprise. Colonel Cogswell's remark-"All right, go ahead!" doubtless served to answer, in Baker's mind, for the contents of the envelop, and therefore it was not broken open. It serves at least to relieve General Stone from the inattention and ignorance of the enemy's force which were freely charged upon him at one time. The movement over the river was Stone's conception, and that remains open for stricture.

XVII.

THE SPIRIT OF VIOLENCE IN THE SOUTH.

THE Southern States, from the first stages of their rebellion. against the Federal Government, put forward as a justification, the oppressions of that central power, and cited the Declaration of Independence as their defence. This assumption was indig nantly denied by Northern men; in Congress and out of it an overwhelming sentiment pronounced the rebellion "causeless, wicked, and unnatural," with "no justification in the law of the country, nor in the higher law of self-protection." From this discordance sprung the passions and impulses necessary to feed the fires of discord; and watchful "guardians of Southern inter

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