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who took the colors.
The color-bearer,
Sergeant Taylor, fell with the colors in his grasp, as he was planting them forward of the line, and
Corporal Hayne, seeing
Colonel Hamilton take the flag, seized it, and gallantly going forward, fell mortally wounded.
Private Spillman, of Company K, then took the flag and carried it to the final charge in triumph to victory.
He was promoted color-bearer on the field for gallant conduct.
Among the lamented dead of the First was the gallant and accomplished
Lieut.-Col. A. M. Smith, who left a sick bed to take his place in his country's service.
In the Twelfth,
Colonel Barnes was wounded, but did not leave the field.
Lieut. J. W. Delaney, commanding Company B, was killed in the first assault;
Captain Vallandingham lost a leg, and
Captains Miller,
McMeekin and
Bookter were wounded.
In the Thirteenth, which was mainly in support, the loss was not so heavy, 8 killed and 40 wounded. In the Fourteenth,
Colonel McGowan and
Maj. W. J. Carter were wounded, as were also
Captains Brown,
Taggart and
Edward Croft, and
Lieutenants Brunson,
O. W. Allen,
Stevens,
McCarley,
Dorrah and
Carter; and the gallant
Lieut. O. C. Plunkett, Company H, was killed on the field.
The First Rifles (known as
Orr's Rifles) suffered terribly.
Its gallant adjutant,
J. B. Sloan,
Captains Hawthorne and
Hennegan,
Lieutenants Brown and
McFall, and
Sergeant-Major McGee died heroically leading in
Marshall's charge.
In
Gregg's battle, a section of
Capt. D. G. McIntosh's battery was called into action late in the afternoon, too late to take an active part in the battle, as the enemy's artillery in front had been silenced, or had retired.
He lost 1 man killed and 2 wounded, and 5 horses killed.
The other South Carolina troops at the battle of Gaines' Mill were with Hood and Longstreet.
The brigades of Hood and Law composed Whiting's gallant division, which had marched from Ashland as the advance of Jackson's corps.
They went into battle in the late afternoon,
