ble. He was disabled with a wound, and Colonel Conrad, of the
15th Missouri, then assumed command of the brigade. By the casualties in
the 65th Ohio the command of that regiment devolved upon the adjutant,
Brewer Smith, a boy only 19 years old, and possibly the youngest officer
to succeed to the command of a regiment throughout the war.

A regiment of the 23d corps which had come to Spring Hill as a train
guard, and was placed in support of the battery at the village, has
persistently claimed that the salvation of our army was due to the
heroic stand it made after all of Wagner's division had run away. In a
historical sketch of the regiment occurs this statement:

"At Spring Hill the regiment had another opportunity to show its pluck.
A division that had been sent forward in charge of the trains was drawn
up to resist any attack the rebels might make while the regiment, being
with the headquarters train, was ordered to support a battery so placed
as to sweep an open field in front of the troops. The enemy, emerging
from the woods, marched steadily up to the National lines, when the
entire division broke and ran." That is pretty strong language in view
of the battle record of Wagner's division, for of the four brigades out
of all the brigades serving in all the Western armies, given prominent
mention by Colonel Fox in his book on regimental losses as famous
fighting brigades, two, Opdycke's and Bradley's, belonged to Wagner's
division, to say nothing of the very awkward fact that the brigades of
Opdycke and Lane were on the other side of Spring Hill, out of sight of
Cleburne's attack, but it is seriously so stated--"the entire division
broke and ran, leaving the regiment and the battery to resist the
attack. Fixing bayonets the men awaited the onset. As soon as the enemy
came within range they poured a well-directed fire into their ranks
which, being seconded by the battery, caused them to waver. Portions of
the retreating division having rallied, the rebels were compelled to
betake themselves to the woods."

And in a paper on this campaign by a captain of the regiment, he relates
how the officers of the regiment tried to stop the flying troops, and
taunted their officers with the bad example they were setting their men;
how the regiment opened a rapid, withering fire from a little parapet of
cartridges which the officers, breaking open boxes of ammunition, had
built in front of the men, and how their fire proved so des