was lost. Eight of the officers lay dead or wounded upon
the field. Three were prisoners, their horses having been killed under
them. The surgeon and chaplain, being non-combatants, were captured while
in attendance upon the wounded.

The battle at High Bridge was finished, for General Read had been mortally
wounded at the first fire after the infantry had rallied in support of the
cavalry attack, and the two small regiments were overwhelmed and compelled
to surrender as soon as the cavalry had ceased to be a factor.

Colonel Washburn had been shot in the mouth and sabred as he fell from his
horse. He was found on the field with the other dead and wounded the next
day, when the advance of the Army of the James came up. He was taken to
the hospital at Point of Rocks but insisted upon being sent to his home
in Massachusetts, where he died in the arms of his mother. Before his
death, he was, at Grant's request, brevetted as Brigadier General.

Of the other officers, Lieutenant Colonel Jenkins was severely wounded, as
were Captain Caldwell and Lieutenants Belcher and Thompson. Captains
Hodges and Goddard were killed, and Lieutenant Davis shot after having
been made a prisoner, for resenting an insult offered him by a rebel
officer. The adjutant, Lieutenant Lathrop, after his horse had been killed
under him, was taken into the woods to be shot, because his captor
asserted that he had slain his brother in the fight. Fortunately a
Confederate staff-officer observed the proceeding, and rescued him from
his would-be murderer.

Happily, the casualties among the enlisted men were much less in
proportion than among the officers. They had to a man fought with the most
desperate valor, keeping up the struggle after all the officers were down,
until absolutely ingulfed in the masses of the enemy.

In telling of the practical annihilation of a body of troops, the
statement that their standard was saved from capture seems almost
incredible; yet such was the case in this instance. The color sergeant, a
gallant soldier from Hingham by the name of Thomas Hickey, had carried the
standard through the hottest of the battle. At the last moment, seeing
that it was impossible to save it from capture except by destroying it, he
managed to elude the enemies who were closing in upon him, and putting
spurs to his horse, flew toward a hut which he had observed in the woods,
and threw himself from his charger just as he reached it, with his foes
c