of the pipe was knocked off. A big brawny
fellow cried out, "Hold on men! the Colonel can't fight without his
pipe!" He wheeled around, stopped the men until he picked up the bowl
and restored it to me. I wish I knew the name of this kind-hearted old
soldier.

The principal fighting was done by the head of the column. A few game
fellows attempted to cross the breastworks. A Captain Sims and a negro
officer were bayoneted close together on our breastworks, but hundreds
of the enemy for hours stuck like glue to our outer bank.

* * * * *

A LONG AND LAZY FIGHT.

The sun was oppressively hot. There was very little musketry, the
cannonading had closed; it was after 7 o'clock, and the soldiers on
both sides, as there was not much shooting going on, seemed to resort
to devices to pass the time. I saw Captain Steele throwing bayonets
over a traverse. I saw Lamotte on one knee on the ground, and asked
what he was doing. He whispered, "I'm trying to get the drop on a
fellow on the other side." They would throw clods of clay at each
other over the bank. As an Irishman threw over a lump of clay I
heard him say, "Tak thart, Johnny." We all wished that Beauregard had
supplied us with hand grenades, for the battle had simmered down to a
little row in the trenches.

* * * * *

THE BATTLE THAT CONQUERED MEADE.

At 8.10 A.M. Ferrero's four thousand three hundred negroes rushed
over and reached the right flank of the Seventeenth. This horde of
barbarians added greatly to the thousands of white men that packed
themselves to the safe side of the breastworks. Thousands rushed down
the hill side. Ransom's Twenty-sixth and Twenty-fifth Regiments were
crazy to get hold of the negroes. "Niggers" had been scarce around
there during the morning, now they were packed in an acre of ground
and in close range. The firing was great all down the hill side, but
when it got down to the branch the musketry was terrific, and Wright's
Battery two hundred yards off poured in its shells. About half past
8 o'clock, at the height of the battle, there was a landslide amongst
the negroes. Colonel Carr says two thousand negroes rushed back and
lifted him from his feet and swept him to the rear. General Delavan
Bates, who was shot through the face, said at that time that Ransom's
Brigade was reported to occupy those lines.

When the battle was at its highest the Seventeenth was forced down