Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/339

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under a heavy artillery tire while supporting a battery. On the 2Qth it fought with great coolness, steadiness and desperation on the e\tivme Kit of Jackson's line. It was subjected to a heavy artil- lery tire the next day, the 301 h, ;>"d there was heavy skirmishing in its front until late in the afternoon. Its loss was five killed and fort v- five wounded.

The battle of ( )x Hill, near Fairfax Courthouse, was fought Sep- tember i, 1862, in a pouring rain. The Twenty-eighth \yason the left of the brigade and fought splendidly, though many of its guns fired badly on account of the moisture. It was here that General Branch, when he made- known the fact that he was nearly out of am- munition, was ordered "to hold his position at the point of the bayo- net." The Twenty-eighth, cold, wet and hungry, was ordered to do picket duty on the battlefield that night without fires.

This regiment was with the Army of Northern Virginia in its march into Maryland; and the first day after crossing the Potomac, September 5th, it feasted on nothing but green corn, browned on the ear before the fires made of the fences in the neighborhood. This was not the first time the regiment had indulged in such a repast.

( )a the 1 4th of September it was with the brigade w r hen it climbed the cliffs of the Shenadoah at midnight, and lay concealed next morning on the left and rear ot the enemy in their works on " Boli- var Heights," in front of Harper's Ferry, ready and eager for the order to assault, which order was never given as the enemy surren- dered under the concentrated fire of the Confederate batteries.

It was in that memorable rapid march from Harper's Ferry to Sharpsburg. On reaching the right of the battlfield, the afternoon of the i yth of September, General A. P. Hill dashed up, and in per- son ordered it at a double-quick up the road to the left, leading to the town, to defend an unsupported battery, and drive back the ene- my's skirmishers who were advancing through a field of corn.

Two days afterward, September igth, it constituted a part of the rear guard of General Lee's army when he re-crossed the Potomac.

At Sheperdstown, on the 2Oth of September, when the Confed- erates could not use their artillery, it gallantly advanced "in the face of a storm of round shot, shell and grape, ' ' and gloriously helped to drive the enemy precipitately over the bank of the Potomac, where so many were killed attempting to cross the river at the dam above the ford.

Here the regiment was compelled to lay all day on the Virginia shore, and the enemy, from the opposite side of the river, fired