66 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



What position Lieutenant Goodell held is not known. On 

 June 28, the colonel commanding, H. W. Birge, informed 

 General Banks that the organization was complete. "I 

 have to report that the volunteers for the storming column 

 are organized in two battalions of eight companies each, 

 strength of company about 50 enlisted men; three and 

 in some cases four, commissioned officers to a company. 

 Battalion officers are, to each, one lieutenant-colonel com- 

 manding, two majors or acting as such, one adjutant, one 

 quartermaster. One surgeon (from One hundred and Six- 

 teenth New York) has reported. Present strength for duty 

 is, Commissioned officers 67, enlisted men 826. Total 

 893." 1 



These men had had two, and some of them three, dread- 

 ful experiences in charging earthworks within a few days, 

 and yet they were willing to assault those same works 

 again. "The stormers" as they were called were gathered 

 in a camp by themselves and put on a regimen calculated 

 to promote physical strength, celerity of action, and en- 

 durance. By every conceivable device did they prepare 

 themselves for the work they were expected to do. They 

 knew that all the arrangements for their support had been 

 made, but the expected order did not come. 



If ever a body of men deserved recognition from their 

 country this column of stormers did. From June 18 to 

 July 8 they waited for the word that meant death to many 

 of them. General Gardner, the Confederate commander in 

 Port Hudson, knew of their existence and confessed that 

 he dreaded their assault. Some twenty years afterwards 

 the subject of the medal promised in the general order 

 1 41 W. R., 603. 



