Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/72

54 advance of it.&quot; If the batteries were to be charged across the open, the quicker the better. He adds, &quot;I regretted that our troops had gone into the open field where the ground was so heavy and where they were exposed for half a mile to the full sweep of the Yankee artillery, but it was now too late to change the order of things, and there was some hope of a direct attack, if made rapidly.&quot; Below in his report, he again says, &quot;I have always regretted that General Early, carried away by his impetuous and enthusiastic courage, advanced so far into the open field.&quot;

General Longstreet says of the attack: &quot;General Hill ordered the advance regiments to halt after crossing the streamlet and get under cover of the woods until the brigade could form, but General Early, not waiting for orders or the brigade, rode to the front of the Twenty-fourth Virginia regiment, and with it made the attack. The gallant McRae, of the Fifth North Carolina, seeing the Twenty-fourth hotly engaged, dashed forward nolens volens to its relief. The other [two] regiments, seeing the confusion of movements and of orders, failed to go forward.&quot; But these regiments were not as entirely inactive as General Longstreet and others have thought. General Hill says that, seeing that the woods on the left were full of the enemy, and &quot;that a column moving across the field would be exposed to a fire in flank, he ordered these regiments to change direction to the left and clear the woods. The regiments were imperfectly drilled and the ground densely wooded, and before they succeeded in carrying out the maneuver it was too late for them to assist the attack of the Twenty-fourth Virginia and the Fifth North Carolina.

The charge made by the Fifth North Carolina, led by Col. D. K. McRae, Lieut.-Col. J. C. Badham, Maj. P. J. Sinclair and Adjt. J. C. McRae, will be a lasting —