Note 129 — Chapter V

"The 42d regiment was then in the height of deserved reputation; in it there was not a private man that did not consider himself as rather above the lower class of people, and peculiarly bound to support the honor of the very singular corps to which he belonged. This brave, hard-fated regiment was then commanded by a veteran of great experience and military skill, Colonel Gordon Graham,[149] who had the first point of attack assigned to him: he was wounded at the first onset. How many this regiment, in particular, lost of men and officers, I can not now exactly say; what I distinctly remember having often heard of it since is, that of the survivors, every one officer retired wounded off the field. Of the 55th regiment, to which my father had newly been attached, ten officers were killed, including all the field officers. No human beings could show more determined courage than this brave army did."—Memoirs of an American Lady, vol. ii., p. 81.