weapon, that she was allowed as many shots as she chose, and thus
became one of the quickest and most accurate marksmen in the
regiment. Nor was the sergeant's straight sword, which hung at her
belt, worn as an idle form. Shd practised daily with her husband and
his friends in camp, till she felt herself as familiar with its uses
as with the carbine
When the regiment moved she sought no indulgences on account of her
sex, but marched in line beside her husband, wearing her sword and
carrrying the flag.
The middle of July came, and the Union army was at length moving
southward from the Potomac, its face set towards Richmond. She
marched with her company and carried her flag. On the day of the
general action she was separated from her husband, the carbineers
with whom she was connected being deployed as skirmishers in the
skirt of pine woods on the left of the line. About one o'clock on
that eventful day the company was brought under fire. She did not
carry her carbine that day, but acted simply as color-bearer. The
men, according to skirmish tactics, were taken out by fours, and
advanced towards the enemy. She remamed in the line, guarding the
colors, and thus giving a definite point on which the men could
rally, as the skirmish deepened into a general engagement. There she
stood, unmoved and dauntlesss under the withering heat, and amid the
roar, and blood, and dust of that terrible July day. Shells went
screaming over her wlth the howl of an avenging demon, and the air
was thick and hot with deadly singing of the minis balls. About four
o'clock, far away on the right, where the roar had been loudest, a
sudden and marvellous change came over the scene. The Union line was
broken, and what was a few moments before a firm and resolute army,
worn and bleeding, but pressing to victory, became a confused and
panic-stricken rout.
The confusion now ran down the lines from right to left, and the
sharpshooters of the First Rhode Island, seeing the battle lost and
the enemy advancing, made the best retreat they could in the
direction of Centrevllle. But so rapidly spread the panic, that they
did not rally on their colors and retreat in order. She knew her duty
better, and remained in position till the advancing batteries of the
enemy opened within a few hundred yards of where she stood and were
pouring shells into the retreating mass. Just then a Soldier on a
Pennsylvania regiment, who was running past, seized her by the hand,
and said, "Come, sis; there's no use to stay here just to be killed;
let's get into the woods.' She stayed down a slope with him towards a
pine thicket. They had run hardly twenty stepss when a cannonba11
struck him full on the head, and in an instant he was sinking beside
her, a shapeless and mutilated corpse. His shattered skull rested a
moment on her shoulder, and streams of blood ran over her uniform.
She kept on to the woods, where she found some of the company and
before long chanced upon the anbulance, onto which she jumped; but
the balls were flying too thick through the cover. She sprang outs
and soon after found a stray horses on which she jumped and rode to
Centreville. Here and at Arlington Heithts, for more than thirty
hours, she was tortured by the most harassing stories about her
husband.
One had seen him fall dead. Another had helped him onto an ambulance,
badly wounded. Another had carried him to a hospital, and the enemy
had fired the building, and all within had perished. Then, again, she
learned that his dead body was left in the skirt of pine woods in
front of where she stood. So fully did she believe this at one time,
that she had mounted a horse, and was starting back from Alexandria
in hope of getting through the lines and finding him, when she was
met by Colonel Burnside, who assured her that Robert was unhurt, and
she should see him in a few hours.
Tlle first Rhode Island was a three months regiments and its time
expired on the 1st of August.
She returned with it to Providence, where she received a regular
discharge, but it was only to reenllst with her husband in the Fifth
Rhode Island. The fall of 1861 was a time of inaction in the army.
McClellan had taken command, and for months the great Union army,
with a spirit and intelligence never equalled in any military
organisation, and abounding in zeal for "short, sharp and decisive"
work, was month after month getting ready to move. Meantime Burnside,
who was a colonel at Bull Run had been made a brigadier, and placed
in command of the Burnside expedition, whose duty it was to penetrate
the country south of Richmond, and at the opportune moment to advance
on Richmond from that directions while the grand army should march
upon it from the north.
The Fifth Rhode Island was on has force. In January Roanoke Island
was taken, and the first blow struck at the rebel power. Early in
March he was in Neuse River, and advancing on Newbern. In the
organization of the regiment Kady was now a regular color-bearer, but
