After the fight was over, two of them had a quarrel regarding a
Federal officer whom both shot at and both claimed to have killed.
These were Virginia boys, the sons of veterans, and attending a local
school.
The raid came to grief soon after, being routed by Fitz-Hugh Lee.
Thomas Hilton, of Uniontown, Alabama, volunteered in the "Witherspoon
Guards," Twenty-first Alabama Regiment, at the tender age of fourteen.
He was too small to carry a musket, and was detailed as a drummer boy.
At the battle of Shiloh he threw away his drum and so importuned his
captain for a gun that it was given him.
Shortly after, while in the thick of the fight, he was shot through
the face, the ball entering one side and passing out at the other.
Rev. N.I. Witherspoon (chaplain of the regiment) found him lying upon
the ground, bleeding to death as he then supposed, and knelt beside
him to pray. To his surprise the boy looked up, the fire in his eyes
unquenched, and gasped out while the blood gushed afresh at every
word,--
"Yes--chaplain--I'm--badly hurt--but--I'm--not--_whipped_."
Thomas Hilton still lives in Uniontown, Alabama, respected by all who
know him.
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