ANECDOTE OF GENERAL BROOKS.–

22. March 2009 by admin.

A soldier in the Fourth Vermont Regiment relates the following incident of the battle of Sharpsburg:–

We marched through a cornfield, and the men lay down with Ayres’s battery, which is connected with our brigade, and took position. The enemy saw us, and poured in a perfect hurricane of canister, grape, and shell, but did but little damage. Then old Ayers opened, and for three hours I could not hear myself think. The air was full of bursting shells and whistling balls, mingled with the roar of artillery and the sharp crack of the sharpshooter’s rifles. General Brooks would not lie down as his men did, but stood up in plain sight. I told the boys he would get hit before night, and so he did; a ball struck him in the cheek and knocked out two teeth, but did no other injury. I have told you before how short and gruff he is. When he was struck, one of the men who was close beside him, asked him if he was wounded. “No, sir; had a tooth pulled,” said the old man; and he never left the field until after dark.

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