974

HISTORY OF THE ORPHAN BRIGADE.

jecting them as boys to long and painful training that they might not fail as men.

To recount the affairs in which he took part would simply be to name in detail the scouts, skirmishes, and pitched battles in which Co. C (after the reorganization Co. A), was engaged. At Hewey's bridge-in Sweeden's Cove; at Murfreesboro' with Forrest; in the charge on the stockade at Tullahoma; with the company when, alone on outpost it was thrown back by a regiment of mounted infantry, but rallied, countercharged, and kept the ground till reinforced; at Perryville, and during those trying days in Bragg's rear, from Crab Orchard to Cumberland Gap; at Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, and Ringgold Gap; in Sequatchie Valley, and at Charleston; at Dug and Snake Creek Gaps; around Atlanta; in the chasing and taking of Stoneman's main force; then at Jug Tavern, as one of the eighty who took many times their own number of men and horses and arms; at Saltville,   and so on to the end. The list is too long; where his command was there he was, unless on detached and important duty, and the history of the regiment furnishes details.

During the fight in Sequatchie Valley his horse was shot under him; at Jug Tavern, Col. Breckinridge says that he particularly distinguished himself; and Gen. Wheeler wrote as follows of the desperate affair when the bridge over Broad River at Columbia, S. C., was crossed, Feb. 16, 1865: "I remember well an episode in which the Hon. Wm. T. Ellis was prominent. A large force, probably half of Sherman's army, were engaged with my cavalry command, driving us rapidly back to the only bridge which there crossed the river. When I had been driven to near the head of the bridge, I sent most of the command across and remained with a small force endeavoring to keep back the enemy, while a detail was engaged in preparing the structure for burning. We fought most desperately in order to prevent being cut off from it; and when near it were compelled to charge an advancing line. While this charge was being made, the bridge, through accident or design, was fired. All the horses, except my own, had previously been sent across, and when we reached the mouth of the bridge we were confronted by an almost solid flame of fire. The men, Ellis among the number, beat my horse with their guns and compelled him to spring through the flame, and they ran through it, all of them being more or less burned. When we got to the end of the bridge, I noticed Ellis, who was still only a boy, with his hair and hat singed, and his hat torn by a bullet which had furrowed along the top of it. No men ever acted with more true courage than this gallant body of fifteen."

After he was promoted to sergeant he was repeatedly sent in charge