During the night at Harper’s Ferry on September14, Sgt. Frederick Wilhelm Fout had gone to the northern end of Bolivar Heights with Capt. J.C.H. Von Sehlen and his four guns. After selecting a covered place for the caissons reporting the positions to the Captain, Frederick remained with Von Sehlen’s for a time until the firing in the rear of the unit on top of Bolivar Heights became most terrific.
He rode up to the Captain, saluted him and asked permission to go back to the other guns left in charge of the Austrian Lieutenant on Bolivar Heights. Every gun of the enemy appeared to be in action, and every part of the present position was unsafe.

After riding about a mile through the iron hail, he reached the section, but to the astonishment of Sgt. Fout he found it abandoned. He looked around for the cannoneers and found some of them sheltered in a deep gully. He asked the Sergeant and Corporal: How is this? Why are you not with your guns and replying to the enemy fire? "Well," said one of the men, "when we were up by the gun and were exposed to the fire from all sides, the Lieutenant that the Captain put over us said "Mein Gott in Himmel! Run boys! Come, and get away from here! And so we left and sought protection.

By that time the enemy had ceased MOST of their firing and Sgt. Fout at once seized up the situation, and asked the men to join with him and open up fire on the rebels. "Did Sgt. Fout know that Col. Miles had waved the White Flag 6 miles aways down in the valley, it is immpossible to say, but looking at the terrain in maps and in person, it would have been almost impossible."