ntry, was
advancing upon the fort. The Fourth Infantry was soon checked in its
advance, as General Daggett especially notes in his report, and the
Twenty-fifth was thus thrust forward alone, excepting Bates' brigade,
which was making its way up the right.

This conspicuous advance of the Twenty-fifth brought that regiment
into the view of the world, and established for it a brilliant
reputation for skill and courage. Arriving in the very jaws of the
fort the sharpshooters and marksmen of that regiment poured such a
deadly fire into the loopholes of the fort that they actually silenced
it with their rifles. These men with the sternness of iron and the
skill acquired by long and careful training, impressed their
characteristics on the minds of all their beholders. Of the four
hundred men who went on the field that morning very few were recruits,
and many had passed over ten years in the service. When they "took the
battle formation and advanced to the stone fort more like veterans
than troops who had never been under fire," as their commander
reports, they gave to the world a striking exhibition of the effect of
military training. In each breast a spirit of bravery had been
developed and their skill in the use of their arms did not for a
moment forsake them. They advanced against volleys from the fort and
rifle pits in front, and a galling fire from blockhouses, the church
tower and the village on their left. Before a less severe fire than
this, on that very day, a regiment of white volunteers had succumbed
and was lying utterly demoralized by the roadside; before this same
fire the Second Massachusetts Volunteers were forced to retire--in the
face of it the Twenty-fifth advanced steadily to its goal.

Lieutenant Moss, who commanded Company H on the firing line on that
day, has published an account in which he says: "The town was
protected on the north by three blockhouses and the church; on the
west by three blockhouses (and partially by the church); on the east
by the stone fort, one blockhouse, the church, and three rifle pits;
on the south and southeast by the stone fort, three blockhouses, one
loop-holed house, the church and eight rifle pits. However, the Second
Brigade was sent forward against the southeast of the town, thus being
exposed to fire from fourteen sources, nearly all of which were in
different planes, forming so many tiers of fire. The cover on the
south and southeast of the town was no better than,