Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 11.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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[187] education, and an accomplished linguist. When number four at the gun was shot down, Sanchez was ordered to fire the piece, but was at that moment struck by the fragment of a shell and thrown by it to the distance of ten feet. He asked to be removed from the spot where he fell. Sergeant Frazier, Lieutenant Ritter and Private Ben. Garst carried him to the right of the gun, and were in the act of laying him down, when Frazier was severely wounded in the face and shoulder. Sanchez died soon after at the field hospital.

The moment the first gun was silenced, Sergeant Wynn, in charge of the second, was directed to throw his trail to the right and fire over the first. It happened that Lieutenant Ritter was lying just in front of the parapet of the second gun, so that the canister fired from it passed over and very near his head, covering him with dirt knocked off the parapet by fragments of the missiles fired at the enemy. It was a dangerous position, and the Lieutenant called out with no little vigor to the Sergeant to ‘cease firing.’ The roaring of the guns, and the din of the musketry of course drowned his voice, so that he had to lie still where he was; the enemy in front, his own men behind him, the gun over him scattering its canister fearfully, while it deafened him with its noise, and nearly suffocated him with its sulphurous smoke. Around him lay the dead and wounded of the first detachment. The peril of his own situation did not prevent him from thinking what would be the fate of these poor men, if the enemy charged the works. It was a great relief when he heard Captain Rowan give the order to cease firing.

Sergeant Frazier asked Lieutenant Ritter to go to Captain Rowan, and ask that he might be carried off the field at once. He was told that it would be exceedingly dangerous to do so, as the moment a person appeared above the parapet, he drew the enemy's fire. Frazier insisted, and carried his point. Lieutenant Ritter jumped over the slight earthwork that covered his gun on the left, ran around the front of the others, and jumped into that one where Captain Rowan and Colonel Beckham were. The trip was full of danger, as hundred of minnie balls buzzed about his head the whole thirty yards he had to go. The Captain would not allow him to return. At dusk the infirmary corps came up to remove the wounded, and later, during the night, the dead were buried.

Corporal A. J. Davis, of the second detachment, made a very narrow escape while serving his gun on this occasion. The belt supporting his gunner's pouch, and his suspenders, were cut into by the enemy's minnie balls. He displayed conspicuous gallantry throughout