Description by Colonel Bryan Grimes of a Charge Made by the Fourth Regiment North Carolina State Troops in the Battle of Seven Pines, May 31, 1862
I attacked the fort and redoubt where my horse's head was blown off, and falling so suddenly as to catch my foot and leg under him. The regiment seeing me fall, supposed I was killed or wounded, and began to falter and waver, when I, still pinned to the earth by the weight of my horse, waved my sword and shouted, "Forward! forward!" Whereupon some of my men came to my assistance and pulled the horse off, when seeing the flag upon the ground, the flag-bearer and all the color guard being killed or wounded, I grasped it and called upon them to charge, which they did, and together with the others, captured the fortification. . . . That night I slept between General Garland and Colonel Anderson on one horse blanket and covered by another, surrounded by dead and wounded, both men and animals.
