A War Reminiscence.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 102, 30 April 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

A War Reminiscence.

"Grant had been pounding us pretty lively for some time in sixty-four"' said Major Hugh Oolquitt, youngest brother of the Georgia senator, who went into the Confederate service on his brother's staff at the aga of fifteen, "but at Cold Harbor we hold a practically impregnable position. Some negro troops had succeeded ax one point in getting into the ditch beneath our parapet, and while they remained there were comparatively safe. They were so close to us that we could hear them talking together. Finally they decided to attempt to scale our ramparts and force an entrance into our works. "Wo could hear them, though we couldn't see them. Their plan was to mount by one another's shoulders until the topmost man should be able to scramble on top of the parapet, and then make a dash at us. They put it into operation, and soon we saw the head and shoulders of a gigantic negro appear above the top of the parapet. Some of the boys -wanted to seize him and pull him as a prisoner, but he made too tempting a mark. A dozen rifles cracked as one, and the daring negro tumbled back a corpse. As he fell we heard a voice in the ditch exclaim: " 'Dar, now; dey done kill Corp. Dick, do gairtest man in de comp'ny!' "That remark passed into a byword in the army of northern Virginia during the rest of the war."—Washington Post.