Harvard memorial biographies ...

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Harvard Memorial Biographies.

bern, Kinston, Whitehall, Goldsborough Bridge, and elsewhere; his last battle was at Drury's Bluff, near Richmond,
Virginia, under Butler. The siege of Fort Wagner was an
episode in his career, and he there showed indications that
he was especially adapted for service so difficult. When
ordered to the front, he wrote (March 2I, 1863):" We are expecting orders hourly to embark for the great trial
of the war; and if I am fortunate enough to get out alive, - or
with my right arm, for left-handed writing is sometimes hard to
read, — I will give you an account of the battle of Charleston by
an eyewitness; but never fear for me, for I shall come out all
right; but if I should fall, remember 't is a soldier's honorable fate;
I die for my country."
He participated in the affair of August 26, 1863, when the
enemy's rifle-pits in front of Wagner were carried by a wellexecuted assault, in which Lieutenant James A. Perkins was
killed. The brigade to which Rea belonged was assigned to
the assault of the fort some time later, and first made the
discovery that the enemy had evacuated in the night.
In the battle of Drury's Bluff (May 16, 1864), the enemy
made a vigorous attack on Heckman's brigade, which occupied the right of our line, routing or capturing the brigade.
This compelled Plaisted's brigade to fall back to a new position. A staff officer says -
"When half-way up a hill, the Colonel seeing the enemy's
colors about fifty yards in the rear, faced the regiment
(Twenty-fourth Massachusetts) about, and, after giving them
two or three well-directed volleys, drove them back.....
Lieutenant Rea had just given the order 'About face' to
his company, and was standing behind the centre at about
three paces to the rear, when he was picked off by a Rebel
sharpshooter; the bullet passing directly through his head,
he was killed instantly,..... Lieutenant Rea behaved
splendidly in all the fights in which the regiment was engaged,
and was especially noticed by Colonel Plaisted (Eleventh
Maine), commanding the brigade..... He had command
of my company (Company I) during the entire expedition