Union Artillery and the VMI Cadets

Union Artillery and the VMI Cadets. "Three of our boys fell dead from the explosion of one shell.". , When the Confederates advanced across this field after overwhelming the Union defenders on Rice's Hill, they came under artillery fire from Union cannon atop Bushong's Hill, 1,000 yards to your left. Among the troops suffering from that fire were the VMI Cadets., "The bursting of shells about us was incessant..." recalled Cadet Sgt. Gideon Davenport. "We passed a group of wounded soldiers who cheered us, but a shell, intended for us, burst in their midst, and they were silent.", One shot fell among the cadets close to where you now stand, with devastating effect. "Suddenly there was a crash in our front," Davenport remembered. Cadet Capt. Frank Preston later recalled, "Three of our boys fell dead from the explosion of one shell." Cadets Sgt. William H. Cabell, Pvt. Henry J. Jones, and Pvt. Charles G. Crockett were killed almost at your feet., William Cabell's brother, John, was also a cadet who took part in the advance. Realizing later that William was missing, he walked back with a "sad, foreboding heart" and found his brother, "his head pierced and torn" by a shell fragment., Cadet John S. Wise returned to the field that night and found the fallen cadets. "We came upon the dead bodies of three cadets; one wearing the chevrons of a first sergeant lay upon his face, stiff and stark, with outstretched arms. His hands had clutched and torn up great tufts of soil and grass. His lips were retracted; his teeth tightly locked; his face as hard as flint, with staring, glassy eyes. It was difficult indeed to recognize that this was all that remained of Cabell, who a few hours before had stood first in his class, second as a soldier, and the peer of any boy in the command in every trait of physical and moral manliness.", (Captions):, VMI Cadet Sgt. William H. Cabell., VMI Cadet John S. Wise