The Gray Jacket of "no. 4" by Thomas Nelson Page

My meeting with him was accidental. I came across him passing through / "the square". I had seen him once or twice on the street, each time / lurching along so drunk that he could scarcely stagger, so that I was / surprised to hear what he said about the war. He was talking to someone / who evidently had been in the army himself, but on the other side -- a / gentleman with the loyal-legion button in his coat, and with a beautiful / scar, a sabre-cut across his face. He was telling of a charge in some / battle or skirmish in which, he declared, his company, not himself -- for / I remember he said he was "No. 4", and was generally told off to hold / the horses; and that that day he had had the ill luck to lose his horse / and get a little scratch himself, so he was not in the charge -- did the / finest work he ever saw, and really (so he claimed) saved the day. It / was this self-abnegation that first arrested my attention, for I had / been accustomed all my life to hear the war talked of; it was one of the / inspiring influences in my humdrum existence. But the speakers, / although they generally boasted of their commands, never of themselves / individually, usually admitted that they themselves had been in the / active force, and thus tacitly shared in the credit. "No. 4", however, / expressly disclaimed that he was entitled to any of the praise, / declaring that he was safe behind the crest of the hill (which he said / he "hugged mighty close"), and claimed the glory for the rest of the / command.

"It happened just as I have told you here," he said, in closing. "Old / Joe saw the point as soon as the battery went to work, and sent Binford / Terrell to the colonel to ask him to let him go over there and take / it; and when Joe gave the word the boys went. They didn't go at a walk / either, I tell you; it wasn't any promenade: they went clipping. At / first the guns shot over 'em; didn't catch 'em till the third fire; then / they played the devil with 'em: but the boys were up there right in 'em / before they could do much. They turned the guns on 'em as they went / down the hill (oh, our boys could handle the tubes then as well as the / artillery themselves), and in a little while the rest of the line came / up, and we formed a line of battle right there on that crest, and held / it till nearly night. That's when I got jabbed. I picked up another / horse, and with my foolishness went over there. That evening, you know, / you all charged us -- we were dismounted then. We lost more men then than / we had done all day; there were forty-seven out of seventy-two killed or / wounded. They walked all over us; two of 'em got hold of me (you see, / I went to get our old flag some of you had got hold of), but I was too / worthless to die. There were lots of 'em did go though, I tell you; old / Joe in the lead. Yes, sir; the old company won that day, and old Joe led / 'em. There ain't but a few of us left; but when you want us, Colonel, / you can get us. We'll stand by you."