without commemorating an incident of personal daring than which, under the circumstances, nothing could have been more illustrious.

During the severest portion of the second day's bombardment, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, while the enemy's solid shots were battering the walls, and their shells were bursting above, within, and around the fort scattering their fragments everywhere, the halyards of the garrison flag which floated from the staff planted upon the parapet just over the sallyport, were carried away by a hostile projectile, and the flag fell.

Lieutenant Christopher Hussey of the Montgomery Guards (Capt. Guilmartin), and private John Latham of the Washington Volunteers (Capt. McMahon), immediately sprang upon the parapet-swept at all points by deadly missiles and, freeing the flag from its fallen and entangled position, bravely bore it to the northeastern angle of the fort, where, rigging a temporary flag-staff on a gun-carriage, they soon again unfolded in proud defiance, amid the smoke and din and dangers of the conflict, the stars and bars of the young Confederacy in whose support they had freely pledged and fearlessly sustained their manliest devotion.

Edward de Almeyda, the gallant standard-bearer of Portugal, in the battle between Ferdinand and Alfonso lost first his right arm, and then his left in the defense of the royal colors, and finally held them firmly between his teeth until he was cut down by his assailants.

In the naval attack upon Fort Moultrie, during the hottest part of the contest, the flag-staff was severed by a cannon ball and the colors fell in the

ditch outside of the work. Leaping through one of the embrasures Jasper caught up that symbol of a young nation's honor, that emblem of its dearest hopes, and, lashing it to a sponge-staff, mounted the parapet where he held it waving proud defiance to the thundering broadsides of the enemy until another staff could be procured and placed in position. A few years later, at the siege of Savannah, this same brave sergeant while in the act of planting the colors, which Mrs. Elliott had presented to Colonel Moultrie's regiment, upon the English redoubt on the Ebenezer road, received a mortal wound, and fell in the ditch. When a retreat of the combined French and American assaulting columns was sounded, summoning his well-nigh exhausted energies for the effort, he succeeded in bearing those colors from the field. "Tell Mrs. Elliott," said he, as the last life-drops were ebbing fast from his manly breast, "that I lost my life supporting the colors which she presented to our regiment.'

In that shock of arms between Harald Hardrada, and Harold, the brave sea king planting his landwaster in the midst, and gathering his trustiest Norsemen in a death ring around it, chanting his war songs to the last, perished in defense of that banner.

The devotion of Codrus, the silence of Leæena, the constancy of Regulus and the self-sacrifice of the Chevalier d'Assas have all been perpetuated in story and song; and when the heroic memories of this momentous struggle for Confederate independence are garnered up, and the valiant deeds recorded of those, who in their persons and acts illustrated the virtues of the truly brave under circumstances of peculiar peril, and in the hour of supreme danger freely

exposed themselves in defense of the national emblem, let the recollection of this illustrious incident upon the parapet of Fort Pulaski be perpetuated upon the historic page, and the names of these two courageous

men be inscribed upon the roll of honor.

CHAPTER IV.

Service of the Battery at various points within the limits of the Military District of Georgia. One Section on James island. Battle of Secessionville.

After the fall of Fort Pulaski the Confederate lines were still further contracted by the withdrawal of the pickets from Skidaway island, and the removal of the troops on the Isle of Hope to the main. In obedience to an order from Brig. Gen. H. W. Mercer commanding, the Chatham Artillery on the 23d of April, 1862, marched from Camp Claghorn, and formed a new encampment on the main, in an old field near Fergerson's Place, distant a little more than a mile from Bethesda. Present and absent, 152.

We left our beautiful encampment on the Isle of Hope, with its many pleasures and comforts, its growing memories and its happy hours, with unfeigned regret. The change from its delightful shades to the bare old field-smitten by the warm sun, and frequented by fleas innumerable-was as marked as it was distasteful. In honor of one of Georgia's most gallant sons, who had recently attracted to himself the admiring gaze of the entire Confederacy for the distinguished part which he sustained at the memorable battle of Shiloh, our new encampment was called Camp Hardee.

The only peculiarity worthy of note connected with this camp, was its proximity to Bethesda, and its Orphan House, an eleemosynary institution rendered

famous by the charities of the Countess of Huntington and the eloquence of Whitefield. Over the deserted old field in which our tents were pitched and our battery parked, not a single tree cast its grateful shadow. A solitary live oak stump, converted almost into iron by age and the influences of the changing seasons, stood just in rear of the southern line of tents; a dead mockery of an ancient grove of noble trees whose majestic forms, in years long since numbered with the past, towered in strength and beauty above this now deserted spot. But a few paces from where our guns were parked were seen the traces of a lone Indian mound, almost level with the surrounding plain, in silence and in sadness giving mournful evidence of the former existence of a race whose memory is perpetuated by only a few scattered organic remains fast yielding to the disintegrating influences of the winds and storms of the relentless years which have elapsed since they were expelled from their homes on this low-lying coast.

For six weeks the Chatham Artillery remained encamped at this spot, occupying an isolated position, the monotony of the scene and the term of service interrupted by naught save the daily routine of camp duties, and field drills. Even this place soon assumed an air of comparative comfort. Cook shops and mess arbors were erected by the men. Pleasant shelters were constructed in front of the tents. The dense margin of myrtles towards the creek was cut down and cleared away, so that the cool sea breeze each afternoon, could, without interruption, diffuse its refreshing influences over all. Wells were dug, stables and harness sheds built, and even the pestiferous fleas expelled by the liberal use of myrtle and wild mint profusely scattered under the floorings of the tents.