The following account of an incident of the battle near Pittsburg Landing is given by one who is enabled to vouch for its authenticity.
In the battle at Pittsburg Landing young Martin Beem of Alton, Ill. Scarce 18 years old was a Sergeant in the 13th Missouri having entered the regiment as a private. On that fatal Sunday the color bearer was shot down at his side and he caught up the flag and carried it through the day and slept that night with its folds around him. The next morning his Captain appointed him a Second Lieutenant pro tempore. The first volley killed the First Lieutenant and Martin took his place. Soon after the Lieutenant-Colonel fell, and the Captain of Martin’s company acted as Major leaving this young hero to carry the company through the battle which he did most gallantly and escaped unharmed. Young Martin Beem was in a printing office when the war broke out, he went to St. Louis and enlisted among the three months volunteers. At the expiration of that service he enlisted for the war. – We may hear from him ere the war is over.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 4
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