7 he Twelfth Alabama Infantry. 283
mortally wounded. I immediately began to walk from the right towards the left of the company, where Attaway was lying, bleed- ing and faint. I had gone but a few steps, and, while raising my right foot, was struck in the calf of the left leg: by a minie ball, which broke the small (fibula) bone and badly fractured the large one. The ball flattened and came out sideways, severing muscles, veins, tendons and nerves. I was knocked down, but ordered two of my men to carry Attaway off the field, the brave and faithful fellow urg- ing them to carry me off first, declaring he would die any way, and that my life must be saved. However, I had him moved away to the rear, before I consented for privates P. W. Chappell and Tobe Ward to place me on a blanket, and carry me to the rear. As I was borne back, Attaway called out for them to hasten with me out of danger, as bullets and shells and solid shot were flying thick and fast around us. His conduct was that of a true, magnanimous friend and generous soldier. Ward and Chappell carried me as gently and quickly as possible toward some ambulances in the rear. When we reached them we were told they belonged to the Louis- iana brigade, and I was refused admittance into one. At this time the gigantic and gallant Colonel Peck, who had been wounded and retired from the field, rode up, and ascertaining the state of affairs, ordered the men to "take him up tenderly and put him in an ambu- lance," adding, "he is a wounded brother soldier and must be cared for."
I thanked the Colonel, but he, in his bluff, soldierly way, inter- rupted and said he "had done nothing but what I would have done for him." Bidding a last farewell to my faithful men, I was driven to the Union Hotel, then turned into a hospital. (Note Chappell and Ward were both afterward killed at Petersburg.) The sur- geon examined my wound, and pronounced it a serious one, and dressed it, uncertain whether the leg should be amputated or not. In my own mind I resolved to die before submitting to its loss. The surgeon promised me, in event our army was to evacuate Winches- ter, to send me away in an ambulance, but a few minutes after shot and shell were fired into the Hospital building, crashing resistlessly through roof, walls, chimneys, etc., and knocking down bricks, plastering, planks and splinters over the helpless wounded and dy- ing, and the demoralized surgeons, hastily detailing two or three of their number to remain with the wounded, fled incontinently, for- getting, in their anxiety to escape capture, all thought of their
