60 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



June 15, the day after the second assault on Port Hud- 

 son, General Banks issued his famous general order no. 49, 

 the only one of the kind issued during the war, calling for 

 volunteers for a storming column of a thousand men, "to 

 vindicate the Flag of the Union and the memory of its 

 defenders who had fallen! Let them come forward . . . 

 every officer and soldier who shares its perils and its glory 

 shall receive a medal fit to commemorate the first grand 

 success of the campaign of 1863 for the freedom of the 

 Mississippi. His name will be placed in general orders 

 upon the Roll of Honor." x 



The next day the order was promulgated and two days 

 later, on the 18th, Goodell wrote to a classmate: — 



In the words of Prof. Tyler in his 19th disquisition on 

 Homer, "The battle still rages. Omnipotence holds the 

 scales in equal hand, but vengeful Hera upsets them." This 

 is the 25th day of the siege and we are still stuck outside 

 the fortifications. Last Sunday we made a general assault, 

 but were repulsed with terrible loss. We got inside three 

 times, but for want of support were driven out. Oh, but it 

 was a terrible place where we charged, — a perfect murder 

 the way it was managed. Instead of creeping round the hills 

 and starting directly for the breastworks, they ordered us 

 to charge across two hills and two ravines before coming 

 to the base of the last; and consequently we were exposed 

 to a withering fire as we went over the crest of each hill, 

 men were mown down right and left. It is wonderful how 

 I have been preserved. I have been in four direct assaults 

 on the works, half a dozen skirmishes and one fight, and yet 



1 41 W. R., 56. 



