ugh the spirit within him crowded itself
up through the physical deadening of his senses. At one of these occasions
he caught the words "Cease firing," and as mentioned in his report, feared
some attempt to surrender. On this point, in a private letter, he speaks
as follows: "Do you remember our losing a large number of Springfield
rifled muskets that exploded near the muzzle after becoming foul from
over-shooting? I saw some that had exploded, say about the shank of the
bayonet. It was so phenomenal as to make a decided impression on my mind
at the time. I think a large number of these must have been lost, and when
the order was given to cease firing, it was under the impression that if
the men were not given a chance to clean their guns, we would lose them
all and be overwhelmed. My impression, you remember, at the time was that
the order to cease firing meant surrender, but Rowett removed that
impression in subsequent interviews, during and after the war."

Rowett's order to "Cease firing" had, of course, nothing to do with the
cry of "Surrender." It is true that there were men in that Redoubt ready
to surrender or to do anything else in order to get out of it alive.
Happily these were few, and most of them lay prone, close under the
parapet, "playing dead," with the combatants and wounded standing and
sitting upon them. If I mistake not, Corse himself, at least for a time,
was holding down of these "living corpses" who preferred to endure all the
pain and discomfort of his position rather than get up and face the
deadly music that filled the air with leaden notes. It came about this
way: The Redoubt was crowded, and as bloody as a slaughter pen. In its
actual construction the parapet encircled a higher elevation in the
center, which had not been sufficiently excavated, so that a man standing,
or in fact, lying, in the middle of the work was exposed to bullets coming
in close over the parapet. It was absolutely necessary to keep room for
the fighting force along the parapet, so the wounded were drawn back, and
in some cases were shot over and over again. The dead were disposed of in
the same way, except that as the ground became covered with them they were
let lie as they fell, and were stood or sat upon by the fighters. Several
of the "skulkers" lay among these, but a few were in the ranks. The
slaughter had been frightful. One of our guns was disabled from the
jamming of a shot, and we were out of ammunition for the