Caption:
William Carrington Mayo
Credit:
American Civil War Museum
East of Heth's Salient at Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864, a savage melee erupted in front of the 12th Virginia's center and left with elements of Burnside's Corps. Shot by a Federal, Ensign Ben May dropped the colors. They fell to the Richmond Grays’ Cpl. William
Carrington Mayo. A graduate of Yale fluent in a dozen languages, this engineer
had returned from France on a blockade runner in early 1863 and immediately
enlisted, refusing an officer’s commissioner. Mayo’s hold on the regiment's banner lasted
just seconds. A Yankee drilled him in the chest and the colors fell again.
Soldiers from the Richmond Grays ending the war at
Appomattox included Mayo, survivor of the bloodbath
east of Heth’s Salient and by that time a sergeant. After the war, Mayo became a prominent Richmond lawyer and businessman.
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