slaughter of our men was very much greater than was necessary. That had the artillery been used in the first instance in all probability but few if any lives would have been lost. That the point selected for the assault was more effectually barricaded than any other part of the town, and was surrounded by buildings, from the windows of which the rebels were able to direct a withering fire upon our columns as they came up the streets, which they could not effectually reply to. That Capt. Young fell at the head of the charge, very close to the obstructions which checked their advance. From this position the rebels fell back to a church and there opened a galling fire upon our men. It became necessary to burn the church to dislodge the enemy, several of whom were burned, and the balance, after a severe contest were taken prisoners. A large number of men were killed and wounded and the rebel loss was equally heavy. I doubt if a more desperate defence, according to the number engaged, was made during the war. than that at Mariana. Capt. Young was buried there with the dead of both sides, including those who died from burns, as well as those who perished by the sword and bullet. It has been said "that in the place where the tree falleth, there it should lie." From a soldier's standpoint there could be no more fitting place for Capt. Young to lie than the spot where he fell. "Silent he lies on the broad path of glory, Where withers ungarnered the red crop of war, 156 CHARACTER AND ANTECEDENTS OF CAPT. YOUNG. Capt. Young was a fine specimen of the volunteer soldier. Always cool and collected, his advice was invariably sound and valuable. He was courageous as a lion and was ever ready to go wherever he felt his duty called him. Left to himself he would never have been guilty of so reckless an act as to charge into the barricaded streets of Mariana until he had exhausted all other expedients, but when the order was once given to execute that most unwise movement, I am confident that no man was more prompt than Capt. Young to see that it was obeyed and fully carried out. The following brief sketch of Capt. Young has been kindly furnished me by Col. Samuel E. Pingree of Hartford, Vt., late of the Third Vermont Volunteers, and who, it is well known, was himself a most distinguished officer. His Mahlon Miner Young was a son of Jacob and Lucy Neal Young, and was born at Royalton, Vt., A. D., 1841. father soon afterwards moved to Hartford, Vt. Mahlon enjoyed the ordinary common school opportunities (found in one of the back districts) and was accounted a bright boy and a good scholar for the chances he had. He worked at farm labor after attaining suitable size and strength, until a year or so before the war and then sought and found employment in a chair factory at Hartford Village until the outbreak of the Rebellion, when at nineteen years of age he volunteered as a private in Company B, First Vermont Volunteer infantry, and accompanied that regiment during its three months term of service. Shortly after his return to Vermont he was authorized to recruit a company for the Seventh at and in the vicinity of ANTECEDENTS OF CAPT. YOUNG NEW ORLEANS. 157 Woodstock. He was made Captain of H Company, and went to Ship Island with his regiment in March 1862. In 1864 he returned to Vermont on recruiting service, and while there married Esther Gould of Tunbridge, Vt. On his return South he served in Florida until his honorable and heroic death on the battlefield at Mariana, September 27th, 1864. Capt. Young, as will be seen by the above sketch, was a very young man when he entered the service. Like so many of the youth who rushed to the war, he was inspired. with the spirit embodied in the following lines of an old author: "Arouse the youth-it is no human call Our country's 'leagured-haste to man the wall; Signal of honored death, or victory." As Col. Pingree well says, he met with an "honorable and heroic death," although he did not live to see the final victory. Gen. Asboth never fully recovered from the wounds ne received at Mariana; at the close of the war he was appointed Minister to one of the South American States, and died, I believe, somewhere in Brazil; his death being accelerated from a fresh breaking out of the wounds he received in this action. While stationed at Annunciation Square, the regiment was employed principally in performing guard duty. We had not enough space to indulge much in battalion drill, but company drills were gone through with every day, and we also drilled extensively in Street manoeuvres and firing. Quite a number of the officers were detailed for duty on Military Commissions and Courts Martial. At this time the Department of the Gulf formed a part of the "Military Division of West Mississippi," which was commanded by Major-Gen. E. R. S. Canby, a regular officer, and one of the most discreet, accomplished and courageous soldiers in the army. His headquarters were at New Orleans. We were shortly destined, under his leadership, to participate in the Mobile campaign, which resulted in the capture of the city of Mobile, and led to the surrender of Gen. Richard Taylor's army, the third largest in size in the Confederacy. CHAPTER VIII. DEPARTURE FOR MOBILE POINT-MOBILE CAMPAIGN-MARCH WHISTLER BLUFFS- -SURRENDER OF TAYLOR'S ARMY-RETURN TO MOBILE. 1865. EN. C. C. ANDREWS, in his history of the Campaign * of Mobile, says that "Early in January it was de"cided that operations should be undertaken against Mobile "but the plan was not arranged until some time afterwards. 66 * * * Canby's movable forces had lately been organ"ized into brigades of the Reserve Corps of the Military "Division of the West Mississippi, and consisted of about ten "thousand men. Subsequently other troops were added, "and this Reserve Corps was merged into and organized as the Thirteenth Army Corps, comprising three divisions, "of which Major-General Gordon Granger was given the com"mand. The troops constituting this corps were all veterans." 66 * History of the Campaign of Mobile, by Brevet Maj. Gen. C. C. Andrews, late commanding 2d Division, 13th Army Corps. |