authority to withdraw my command. Permission was given, and the main body was withdrawn."

The failure of the assault appears to have been due to imperfect reconnoissances and to the state of the weather. It had rained on the night of the 27th, and, the weather then turning very cold, the parapet was hard frozen, and a heavy ice crop was formed by the moisture from the bank, which prevented the men from obtaining a foothold. Ladders would not have been of material assistance, unless they had been furnished in great numbers and had been at least twenty feet long. As it was, the men of McLaw's command did all that human resolution could do, and despaired only in the face of impossibilities, on the brink of an impassable ditch into which as a huge grave they piled their dead.

We have been thus particular in giving to the reader the story of Knoxville, because it excited a sharp interest during the war, and was the subject of severe recriminations, in which an attempt was made to diminish the hard-earned military reputation of Gen. McLaws. That attempt failed. The record of Gen. McLaws remained at the end of the war undimmed, honourable, and worthy of a conspicuous place in the historical memories of the times that tried men's souls.

There was one remarkable peculiarity in his career. There were few men, particularly military men, who were prompted less by a love of fame than he was. The reputation which he acquired was not sought by him, but followed the deeds which he achieved in discharging the duties of his position. He had as little selfishness as falls to the lot of most human beings, and envy and jealousy found no lodgment in his bosom. Extraordinary firmness and determination to do his duty, regardless of all selfish aspirations; a heart feelingly alive to the sufferings of the sick and afflicted soldiers of his command; and love for his sovereign State and country, were some of the prominent characteristics of his nature. Such men live more for haman nature and their country than themselves.

MAJ.-GEN. CADMUS M. WILCOX.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Military services in Mexico.-His gallantry at Chapultepec.-Subsequent services in the United States Army.-His first command in the Confederate States Army.— Heroic conduct of his brigade in the battles around Richmond, 1862.—At Gaines' Mills. At Frazier's Farm.-An incident on the second field of Manassas.— Battle of Salem Church.-Important action of Wilcox' Brigade on the second day of Gettysburg-A narrow chance of victory.-Why the supports failed.Amusing anecdote of Gen. Wilcox and a chicken-thief.-Promoted Major-GeneralRecord of services in the campaign of 1864-5.-Heroic story of Fort Gregg.Last scenes of the surrender.

CADMUS M. WILCOX was born in Greene county, North Carolina, but was taken at the age of two years to Tennessee, of which State he has since been accounted a citizen. In 1842 he was appointed a cadet at the West Point Academy, from the Memphis District. He graduated in 1846, and joined the Fourth United States infantry as brevet second-lieutenent at Monterey, Mexico, a few days after the battle. He was afterwards appointed aidde-camp to Major-Gen. John A. Quitman, and in that capacity saw some brilliant service in the Mexican war, and was in all the battles in which Quitman's division participated.

The part borne by this gallant command at Chapultepec, Garita de Belin, and the City of Mexico is well known to history. At the battle of Chapultepec, Lieut. Wilcox gave the order to the storming party to advance to the attack, and went at their head. There were two columns of attack; one led by Quitman and the other by Pillow. From Chapultepec to the city of Mexico, a distance of two miles in a direct line, were two roads, the direct one leading through the Garita de Belin, and the longer

one by San Cosmo. It was by the first mentioned route that Gen. Quitman pursued vigorously after the capture of Chapultepec; but although this route was the shorter, it was the more difficult, as batteries had to be taken before reaching the gate, then a battery there, and, lastly, the position to be held under a concentrated fire from the citidel, a bastioned work, less than two hundred yards distant, surrounded by a heavy wall and deep ditch of water, with seventeen pieces of artillery and four thousand infantry. The Garita de Belin was captured at twenty minutes past one o'clock and held until night, under cover of which Santa Anna evacuated the city. When the gate had been gained, Gen. Quitman ordered a flag to be waved from the top of the aqueduct, that his men in the rear might know his success. Lieut. Selleck of the Palmetto Regiment, assisted by Lieut. Wilcox, aid-de-camp, mounted the aqueduct, and the two lieutenants waved the Palmetto flag, which was the first raised in the city of Mexico. This was done under a close and terrific fire of both musketry and artillery. Lieut. Selleck, while waving the flag, had a leg broken by a musket ball, and fell. One of the men, catching him as he fell, also received a shot, and was instantly killed. Lieut. Wilcox received a severe contusion in his left side, his pistol being struck by a musket ball, which flattened on it.

Upon the return of the army to the United States, Lieut. Wilcox served on the frontier, west of the Mississippi River, in Florida, and in Texas-much of the time in operations against the Indians. In the autumn of 1852, he was ordered to West Point, as assistant instructor in infantry tactics. Here he remained on duty until the summer of 1857. During a part of this time he was commandant of the cadets. Upon being relieved from duty at the military academy, his health not being good, sick furlough for twelve months was given him, with permission to visit Europe. Returning from Europe, he prepared and published a work upon rifles and the theory of rifle-firing. Of this work the War Department at Washington ordered a thousand copies for distribution to the army, and it was made a text book at West Point Academy. He also translated and published the evolutions of the line (infantry), as practiced and adopted by the Austrians.

Entering the field of active duty again, he was ordered to

New Mexico, and promoted to a captaincy. He was subsequently stationed at Fort Fillmore, in Arizona; and at this distant post he became apprised of the war consequent on the disruption of the Union, and on the 7th June, 1861, learned that Tennessee, the State of his citizenship and allegiance, had seceded. The mail that gave him this information bore him an order directing him to proceed forthwith to Washington city and report for duty to Lieut. Gen. Scott. The next morning he tendered his resig nation as an officer of the United States Army, and left for Richmond.

Offering his services to the new government, he received the appointment of colonel, and was assigned to the command of the 9th Alabama Regiment. He reached Manassas the day after the first brilliant victory on that twice glorious field. On the 21st October, 1861, he was made a Brigadier-General, and given the command of the 3d Alabama, 1st Mississippi, and 1st Virginia regiments, and a battery. At Williamsburg his brigade was prominent, fighting on the right, where the action was a complete success for the Confederates. At Seven Pines he commanded two brigades, and at Gaines' Mill three-his own, Featherstone's, and Pryor's. This command, under the immediate direction of Gen. Wilcox, attacked the extreme left of the enemy's line, and was in that part of the field most severely contested. The position of the enemy was defended by numerous and heavy artillery, admirably posted. The line of attack was formed under a brisk enfilading fire of artillery from the Federal batteries of rifled cannon from the heights beyond the Chickahominy; but the men moved forward in admirable order, preserving their alignments perfectly. Ascending the crest of a hill they came in full view of the enemy, and were instantly met by a heavy and destructive fire of infantry within less than a hundred yards. It was dashing in the face of death. The enemy was in large force, directly in front, behind two lines of breastworks, the second overlooking the first; and from behind this, as well as the first, a close and terrible fire of musketry was poured in upon the devoted assailants. Between them and the works referred to was the bed of a small stream which the enemy used as a rifle pit, and from this also a strong line of fire was brought to bear. Thus exposed to three lines of fire, facing shot, shell, grape, and

cannister, and all the time suffering from an enfiladed fire from batteries of rifle cannon beyond the Chickahominy, the heroic men of Wilcox's command seemed to be delivered to destruction But they never faltered; the first impulse of attack was more than redoubled as they approached the enemy; the Federal ranks were shaken, and began to yield only when Wilcox's men had got within a few yards of them; and now with yells the Confederates run over the rifle-pit, drive the Federals from the second parapet of logs, push them into the open field, and now when the fugitive troops are no longer screened by their breast works or standing timber, breaking them into rout, chasing them in all directions, and covering the ground with their dead and wounded. Here McClellan lost his battery of Napoleon guns, and with difficulty saved what remained of his army under the cover of the night. It was this desperate and gallant assault that at once conferred upon Wilcox one of the most brilliant reputations of the

war.

At Frazier's Farm there were other laurels won, and in this field nearly every regimental officer in Wilcox' command was wounded, and the General himself had his clothing perforated by six bullets. Two of the enemy's batteries, six guns each, were captured; and although one of them was retaken by the enemy, it was only when overwhelming numbers had been brought to bear against a solitary regiment (the 11th Alabama), which, entering the engagement 357 strong, had 181 men and nine company officers killed and wounded. In the two battles of Gaines' Mills and Frazier's Farm, Wilcox's own brigade had lost 1,055 men ont of a force of 1,800; of this number fifteen officers were killed, fifty-two officers were wounded, 216 men killed, and 754 wounded. The brigade was in reserve at Malvern Hill, and returned to camp on the Charles City road on the 6th July, 1862. Its loss was heavier than that of any other brigade in Longstreet's division, and the severest in the army in proportion to its strength, it being composed of only four regiments.

In the other battles of 1862 in Virginia, Gen. Wilcox was not conspicuously engaged. But we may make note of an incident on the second field of Manassas, which contains an interesting tribute both to himself and to a brave enemy. While the action was progressing, and in the heat of the battle, Wilcox was