Even members of the Confederate forces agree that the Marines fought with valor, as is noted on a new way side marker dedicated at the site this week: “The green pines were filled with 79th Highlanders and the red-breeched Brooklyn Zouaves, but the only men that were killed and wounded twenty t0 thirty yards behind and in the rear of our lines were the United States Marines. – Surgeon Daniel M. Conrad 2nd Virginia.”
Forty-Four of the “Marines of 61” were killed, wounded or taken prisoner after three charges on the Confederate lines.
