lelliott19
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Major Hamilton, I am glad to see you. I am badly wounded (pointing to the spot,) and I believe I shall die. Perhaps, I may not, but something warns me that the chances are against my recovery. You and I have served the same State and I wish you, no I charge upon you, to bear testimony to the fact that I fell at the head of my brigade, leading them in a charge, which up to that time was successful. I love my country as devotedly as any man ever has or can do....I shall die with perfect resignation if it be known where my death wound was received; that it was in my appointed place, where a soldier should, and where my State and country had a right to expect.
Major Samuel P. Hamilton, of Cabell's Artillery Battalion, writes to Peter Wellington Alexander (aka P. W. A.), of the Savannah Republican, from Camp Near Culpeper Court House, VA, July 26, 1863, concerning the mortal wounding of Brig Gen Paul J Semmes at Gettysburg:
I was standing at the gun where the gallant Frazer [sic. Fraser] had just been struck down, when I observed a wounded man being borne from the field in a blanket. By the number of attendants, I soon perceived that it was an officer of rank and in a moment after recognized that officer as Gen. Semmes....I saw the charge of his brigade; the Tenth Georgia passed over the left of our battalion of artillery where I had command. No ordinary ordeal was it theirs to meet: a plain swept by thirty pieces of cannon first to be passed -- a precipitous mountain, jagged with rocks, to be scaled in the face of brigade upon brigade of the enemy, strongly positioned on its sides....among all the brave men who there fought and there fell, I venture to assert that no more complete soldier, more faithful officer, or more heroic spirit there received his doom than Paul J Semmes.
[Weekly Columbus Enquirer. (Columbus, Ga.), August 11, 1863, page 1.]
OP Image: Requiem In Memory of Gen. Paul J. Semmes, sheet music cover, Wm. A. Pond & Co., New York, 1868. LOC
@Tom Elmore @Wallyfish @infomanpa Cabell's Battalion included Manley's (NC) Battery, Troup (GA) Artillery, Fraser's (GA) Battery and McCarthy's First Richmond Howitzers. Which battery was Hamilton commanding?
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