The Lancaster Ledger

South Carolina in the Field.

The Life and Correspondence of Gen. John A. Quitman is published. The following is an extract of the description of the battle of Churubusco:

Colonel Butler, of the South Carolinians, had left his sick bed against the remonstrances of his friends to lead the Palmettos to the combat. Early in the engagement his horse was shot under him. Soon after he received a painful wound in the knee, and yielded the command to Lieutenant Colonel Dickinson,--

Flying the Palmetto flag from the hands of Sergeant Beggs, Dickinson placed himself in front, and Beggs was immediately shot down. (Butler now came up to rescue the command, and was shot by the side of Dickinson while saying under the flag. Dickinson himself received a mortal wound, (he died six weeks afterwards,) and Major Gladney received it from his hands, and communicated it to Lieut. Baker, who being unable from debility and exhaustion to carry on. Major [indigen] placed it in the hands of Patrick Leonard, and led his regiment to the charge. His men fell rapidly but not one wavered, from first to last, under the concentrated fire of the enemy. In the whole history of war there is no such been a more striking example of indifference to death, the result of stern resolve. Each man fought for the honor of Carolina. Several companies were almost annihilated. Some had not men enough left to bury their dead, or bear their wounded to the ambulances. The uniforms of some of the officers were literally torn from their persons; the color bearers were shot down; but the flag, red with their blood, was always seized by the first and borne to the front. This flag floated through the tempest of death until the victory had been won, and then, all torn and blood stained, it waved over its own glorious dead. The regiment entered the battle with 273 rank and file, and when it was over it mustered 100! It had no missing; its killed and wounded made up the deficiency. Sons of a noble State, sons of a sunny clime, branded by their country as traitors for defending the Constitution and their rights from usurpation and outrage, yet dying cheerfully for that country in a foreign land—the world may learn that such a race, in defense of their own homesteads and institutions, can never be subdued?