Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/105

Rh haps, if according to this order, all the Confederates had assaulted Malvern hill in concert, the issue might have been less disastrous to them. However, of the ten divisions present, only those of McLaws, D. R. Jones and Huger, all under Magruder, on the right, and that of D. H. Hill, in the center, dashed against those guns; and these two forces attacked separately.

Three of Armistead’s regiments were ordered by him to drive in the Federal skirmishers in his front. &quot;In their ardor,&quot; says General Armistead, &quot;they went too far.&quot; Wright’s Georgia brigade advanced to support Armistead, but the gallant little force was soon driven to the shelter of a ravine, not, however, before the noise of their battle and their shout of attack had produced confusion. Gen. D. H. Hill, hearing the noise of this attack, thought it was the preconcerted battle-signal, and obeying his orders, moved his five brigades into action. This division contained eleven North Carolina regiments, but on the day of this battle the Fourth and Fifth were absent on detail duty. In Garland s brigade were the Twelfth, Colonel Wade; the Thirteenth, Colonel Scales; the Twentieth, Maj. W. H. Toon; the Twenty- third, Lieut. I. J. Young. In Anderson’s brigade, commanded at Malvern Hill by Colonel Tew, were the Second, Colonel Tew; the Fourteenth, Colonel Johnston; the Thirtieth, Colonel Parker. In Ripley s were the First and Third North Carolina, the First under Lieut.-Col. W. P. Bynum, of the Second, and the Third under Colonel Meares. As Hill’s men moved in, Magruder also ordered an advance of his troops, but they were delayed and did not get into close action until Hill’s division had been hurled back. The Comte de Paris, who was on General McClellan’s staff and had excellent opportunities for seeing all that was going on, gives this account of the charge of Hill’s Carolinians, Georgians and Alabamians:

Hill advanced alone against the Federal position. . . . He had therefore before him Morell’s right, Couch’s divi-