the Sixty-Third always obeys orders," was the lieutenant
colonel's prompt response, and Gen. Porter disappeared to the front.

While halted here for the appearance of the battery, a crowd of men
coming from the front, in the now gathering darkness, attracted my
attention. I should say there were not more than fifty men all
told--perhaps not more than thirty. They were grouped around their
colors, which I discovered to be a United States flag and a green
standard. The men were the most enthusiastic I ever saw. They were
cheering, and their voices could be plainly heard over the roar of
battle. Some were without caps, many were wounded, and all grimy
from powder, and every few moments some one of them called for
"three cheers for the stars and stripes."

"Let us give three for the green flag, boys."

"Give the Rebels h---- boys!" To one officer in front cheering, who had
his cap on the point of his sword, I inquired:

"What regiment is this, captain?"

"Why, don't you know?

"This is all that is left of the old Ninth Massachusetts--all that is
left of us boys!

"Our dead and wounded are in the woods over there!

"Oh! we lost our colonel, boys; the gallant Cass, one of the best
fighters and bravest man in the army!

"We saved our colors, though, and we had to fight to do it!

"Go in, Irish Brigade! Do as well as the Ninth did!

"Three cheers for the stars and stripes!

"Give three for the old Bay State!

"Hurrah!"

And the remnant of the splendid regiment filed to the rear in the
darkness; but still their cheers could be heard for quite a distance
over the rattle of musketry and the sound of the guns.

"The battery! The battery! Here comes the battery!" was heard from a
hundred throats, as it wildly thundered and swept from the rear,
regardless of the dead and dying, who fairly littered the field. God
help the dying, for the dead cared not! The iron wheels of the
carriages, and feet of the horses, discriminate not between friend and
foe. It will never be known how many were ground to pulp that July
evening as Capt. J. R. Smead's Battery K, Fifth United States Artillery
came in response to the command of the gallant Porter, who saw the
danger of having his left turned. Three batteries were ordered up by
Gen. Porter, viz: Capt. J. R. Smead; Capt. Stephen H. Weed, Battery I,
Fifth United States Artillery; and Capt. J. Howard Carlisle, Battery E,
Second United States Artillery.

"Forward, Sixty-Third! Doub