University of Virginia Library

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473

CHARGE OF HAGOOD'S BRIGADE[51]

(By Joseph Blyth Allston.)

Scarce seven hundred men they stand
In tattered, rude array,
A remnant of that gallant band
Who erstwhile held the sea-girt strand
Of Morris' Isle with iron hand
'Gainst Yankees' hated sway.

Secessionville their banner claims,
And Sumter, held 'mid smoke and flames,
And the dark battle on the streams
Of Pocotaligo:
And Walthall's Junction's hard-earned fight,
And Drewry's Bluff's embattled height,
When, at the gray dawn of the light,
They rushed upon the foe.

Tattered and torn those banners now,
But not less proud each lofty brow,
Untaught as yet to yield:
With mien unblenched, unfaltering eye,
Forward, where bombshells shrieking fly,
Flecking with smoke the azure sky
On Weldon's fated field.

Sweeps from the woods the bold array,
Not theirs to falter in the fray,
No men more sternly trained than they
To meet their deadly doom;
While, from a hundred throats agape,
A hundred sulphurous flames escape,
Round shot, and canister, and grape,
The thundering cannon's boom!

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474

Swift, on their flank, with fearful crash
Shrapnel and ball commingling clash,
And bursting shells, with lurid flash,
Their dazzled sight confound:
Trembles the earth beneath their feet,
Along their front a rattling sheet
Of leaden hail concentric meet,
And numbers strew the ground.

On, o'er the dying and the dead,
O'er mangled limb and gory head,
With martial look, with martial tread,
March Hagood's men to bloody bed,
Honor their sole reward;
Himself doth lead their battle line,
Himself those banners guard.

They win the height, those gallant few,
A fiercer struggle to renew,
Resolved as gallant men to do
Or sink in glory's shroud;
But scarcely gain its stubborn crest,
Ere, from the ensign's murdered breast,
An impious foe has dared to wrest
That banner proud.

Upon him, Hagood, in thy might!
Flash on thy soul the immortal light
Of those brave deeds that blazon bright
Our Southern Cross.
He dies. Unfurl its folds again,
Let it wave proudly o'er the plain;
The dying shall forget their pain,
Count not their loss.

Then, rallying to your chieftain's call,
Ploughed through by cannon-shot and ball,
Hemmed in, as by a living wall,
Cleave back your way.

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475

Those bannered deeds their souls inspire,
Borne, amid sheets of forked fire,
By the Two Hundred who retire
Of that array.

Ah, Carolina! well the tear
May dew thy cheek; thy clasped hands rear
In passion, o'er their tombless bier,
Thy fallen chivalry!
Malony, mirror of the brave,
And Sellers lie in glorious grave;
No prouder fate than theirs, who gave
Their lives for Liberty.

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MONUMENT TO HAGOOD'S BRIGADE NEAR PETERSBURG, VA., SHOWING FRONT
VIEW—ERECTED BY WM. V. IZLAR.

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MONUMENT TO HAGOOD'S BRIGADE

Here
A Brigade
Composed of the
7th Battalion
The 11th, 21st, 25th and 27th
Regiments,
South Carolina Volunteers
Commanded by
Brig. Gen. Johnson Hagood
Charged
Warren's Federal Army
Corps
On the 21st Day of August,
1864
Taking Into the Fight 740
Men
Returning With 273

No Prouder Fate Than Theirs,
Who Gave Their Lives
To Liberty.

On the opposite or west side of the die is a 15-inch bronze
shield of the State of South Carolina.

On the four sides of the base of the monument are inscriptions;
that on the east or side fronting Halifax road being as follows:

HAGOOD'S BRIGADE.

On the north side are the letters,

C. S. A.

On the south side are the letters,

A. N. V.

On the rear or west side of the base is the following inscription
telling the history of the monument:

Placed Here by Wm. V. Izlar,
A Survivor of the Charge
Aided by Other
South Carolinians.

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MONUMENT TO HAGOOD'S BRIGADE NEAR PETERSBURG, VA., SHOWING REAR VIEW—ERECTED BY WM. V. IZLAR.