w York, and the Twenty-third Pennsylvania in line. Four
more gallant regiments could not be found in the service. Leaving
everything but guns and ammunition, they started forward, encountering a
shower of bullets, grape and canister, as soon as they rose above the
slight knoll which had concealed them. We of the Second division looked
with admiration upon the advancing line; our flag--it was the flag of
the Sixth Maine--in advance of the others, its brave color-guard
bounding forward, then halting a moment while the men came up, then
dashing forward again, and finally gaining the heights before us all! It
was a noble spectacle, and filled our hearts with pride for our brave
comrades of the Light division. The Light division secured as trophies
about seven hundred prisoners and five cannon.

Thus the heights were won. It was a glorious day for the Sixth corps.
Never was a charge more gallantly made. But it was a sad day, for many
scores of our brave comrades lay stretched in death, along the glacis,
and on the steep ascent, in the ravines and along the road.

The Seventh Massachusetts, the Sixth Maine, the Fifth Wisconsin, the
Second Vermont, and the Seventy-seventh, Thirty-third and Forty-third
New York, were among the greatest losers. The Sixth Maine reached the
rebel works with the loss of six captains and the major, and a
proportional number of enlisted men. Two color-bearers and
Lieutenant-Colonel Newman were shot in the Thirty-first, and Colonel
Jones, of the Seventh Massachusetts, was seriously wounded, while one
hundred and twelve of his brave men were either killed or wounded.

The wounded had been taken to the city, where they were kindly cared for
by the surgeons of the corps, who had seized the town for hospital
purposes. Churches and private dwellings swarmed with the unfortunate
men, whose mangled forms told of the fearful work of the day. Surgeons
were hard at work ministering relief to the suffering, binding up the
wounds or removing the mangled limbs which offered no hope of recovery;
while nurses administered food and coffee, and prepared beds, such as
could be extemporized from blankets spread upon the floors. More than
three thousand wounded were brought into the city before nightfall.

Upon the very heels of the brilliant success of the corps commenced
disaster. An order from General Hooker had directed General Sedgwick to
advance toward Chancellorsville, and form a junction with the main army.
So