sing
and struggling onward with the colors. The third time he fell the flag
was seized by George Cotchet, and when he in turn fell, by Shubrick
Hayne. Hayne was also struck down almost immediately, and the fourth
lad, for none of them were over twenty years old, grasped the colors,
and fell mortally wounded across the body of his friend. The fifth,
Gadsden Holmes, was pierced with no less than seven balls. The sixth
man, Dominick Spellman, more fortunate, but not less brave, bore the
flag throughout the rest of the battle.

Yet another occurred at Antietam. The 7th Maine, then under the command
of Major T. W. Hyde, was one of the hundreds of regiments that on many
hard-fought fields established a reputation for dash and unyielding
endurance. Toward the early part of the day at Antietam it merely took
its share in the charging and long-range firing with the New York and
Vermont regiments, which were its immediate neighbors in the line. The
fighting was very heavy. In one of the charges the Maine men passed over
what had been a Confederate regiment. The gray clad soldiers were lying,
both ranks, soldiers and officers, as they fell, for so many had been
killed or disabled that it seemed as if the whole regiment was prone in
death.

Much of the time the Maine men lay on the battle-field hugging the
ground under a heavy artillery fire, but beyond the reach of ordinary
musketry. One of the privates, named Knox, was a wonderful shot, and had
received permission to use his own special rifle, a weapon accurately
sighted for very long range. While the regiment thus lay under the storm
of shot and shell he asked leave to go to the front, and for an hour
afterwards his companions heard his rifle crack every few minutes. Major
Hyde finally, from curiosity, crept forward to see what he was doing,
and found that he had driven every man away from one section of a
Confederate battery, tumbling over gunner after gunner as they came
forward to fire. One of his victims was a general officer, whose horse
he killed. At the end of an hour or so a piece of shell took off the
breech of his pet rifle, and he returned disconsolate: but after a few
minutes he gathered three rifles left by wounded men, and went back
again to his work.

At five o'clock in the afternoon the regiment was suddenly called upon
to undertake a hopeless charge, owing to the blunder of a brigade
commander, who was a gallant veteran of the Mexican war, but who was
also g