On this day, over the intervening space, went the Regiment, and Murray with it.
No doubt, then, of the moral worth of their commander. No waver of thought then as to the true courage of their leader. But for one moment following upon the contest, in which for officers and men to have spoken to him the word which would have been their every assurance, that in the sure test of a soldier he had proved himself all that could have been asked for, and more. But time, this side, with him, had stopped, ere the Regiment crossed the line of its victory. Where the Regiment was to strike his line, the enemy was in strong position on the edge of a wood, behind natural breast-works of rocks and hillocks, and with two hundred yards of open space to his front.
The moment the order to charge was received, the Regiment started off by the flank, the Pioneer corps in the advance to take down fences. Down the hill, over the meadow ground and through the woods to the opening, all the time exposed to the rebel artillery fire.
Unsupported on either flank, the Regiment pressed forward in line, up the slope, two-thirds of the distance across the open space, and halted just before reaching the top.
Colonel Murray knew that the Regiment could not stay where it was. To his Adjutant he said: "We cannot hold this place; we must either advance or retreat, and we will not retreat."
Both his Field Officers were absent. His horse had been killed, as had also that of his Adjutant, and he was now dismounted.
Waiting only long enough for his Adjutant to make known his purpose to the Company Commanders, Murray gave the order to "Charge!" Promptly the order was obeyed, and he and his Regiment were well on the way, when he fell, without a word, instantly killed, his forehead pierced by a ball, seemingly guided in its course by the flash of the figures 8 and 4 upon his cap, through which the bullet crashed on its way to claim the life which thus far had led the Regiment that was to turn the tide.
Inspired as they were by so noble an example, even so great a loss, at so critical a moment, did not stop the Regiment in its course.