"These orders were executed with a courage and daring seldom equaled by even older troops, and never excelled by a volunteer regiment.
"In less than two minutes from the time the charge was ordered, the rebel battery was in our possession, and out of thirty-six horses used in the battery, but two were left standing when we passed the guns.
"Most of the artillery-men lay dead and wounded around the battery while the line of infantry support in the rear of battery, fell back in disorder before our bayonets; not, however, until many of them had for the first time felt the effects of cold steel.
"The charge, though bloody on both sides, was pre-eminently successful, and my regiment, "the 2nd Iron Clads," as it was called, brought away the battery so captured.
"In the charge, the regiment lost in killed and wounded, some forty odd men and officers. All of our horses, field and staff, were shot and most of them killed. The color bearer Harrison Young, a hero among men, was wounded and fell, raised to his feet and was again twice wounded. A comrade then took the flag and was wounded, and a third man brought it off the field.
"A wounded lieutenant of the battery was brought to me, as a prisoner;[25] but in view of the massacre of colored troops by the rebels at Fort Pillow and other places, I sent the Lieutenant immediately back through the lines, pointing him to the regiment that had made the charge, and telling him that since the rebel authorities had concluded to take no prisoners, belonging to colored regiments, it would hardly be proper for me to hold him as a prisoner; that they had established the precedent, and that in so far as I was concerned, they could 'lay on MacDuff.' The Lieutenant rejoined his command a sadder if not a wiser man.
"After the charge I moved with my regiment to the centre, where the battle was then raging hottest. Here it remained in the thickest of the fight until an advance was ordered all along the line, which was made, the enemy falling back slowly before our troops, and finally retired from the field, leaving us in full possession, with a complete victory.
PHALANX SOLDIERS BRINGING IN A CAPTURED BATTERY