VII. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF ONE OF 



HIS STAFF. 



IN person the Major, as every one called him, was of medium 

 height and as a young man rather slight. He told me how, at 

 the time of the battle of Shiloh, where he lost his right forearm, 

 his superior officer, General W. H. L. Wallace, a tall and hand- 

 some soldier, mounted on a fine large chestnut thoroughbred, see- 

 ing him wounded and the enemy closing in, said: "Here, Lieuten- 

 ant, we're going to be captured in a few minutes; get onto my 

 horse and go back to the landing at once." So saying, General 

 Wallace dismounted, and, strong-armed as he was, picked up this 

 mere boy-lieutenant who might have weighed 125 Ibs., set him in 

 the saddle and sent him away. It was only a few minutes later 

 that this noble officer received his death-wound. Midst the hissing 

 and singing of bullets and screeching of shells Powell galloped 

 back to the landing, about half a mile distant, the red blood spurt- 

 ing from his wounded arm, and soon arrived white and faint. 

 Thence he was taken off to one of the nearby Union gun-boats 

 where the presence and tender care of his young wife brought the 

 prompt attention to his wound that probably saved his life. 



The battle over, he was, with others, sent "up the river" to a 

 hospital, from which after some weeks he returned to his command 

 engaged in the operations about Vicksburg. Some years after the 

 war was over, he applied for a pension. Accordingly his record 

 was examined by the pension officers, who found him not pension- 

 able, as the record showed him to be a deserter [!], having been 

 for some weeks after the battle of Shiloh "absent from his com- 

 mand without leave." This absence covered the time when he was 

 in the hospital. Explanations followed, the proper evidence se- 

 cured, the record corrected, and the pension granted. This inci- 

 dent, however, permanently affected his views as to the evidence 

 in pension cases and made him lenient toward defects in the rec- 



