Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/98

80 third and Thirty-seventh, of Branch’s brigade; and the Sixteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-eighth, of Fender’s brigade. The work before them was enough to appal any but the stoutest hearts. General Porter himself has put on record testimony to the grimness of their attack. He says: &quot;Dashing across the intervening plains, floundering in the swamps, struggling against the tangled brushwood, brigade after brigade seemed almost to melt away before the concentrated fire of our artillery and infantry; yet others pressed on, followed by supports as dashing and as brave as their predecessors.&quot; In the repeated assaults of the afternoon, the Sixteenth North Carolina, Colonel McElroy, and the Twenty-second, Lieut.-Col. R. H. Gray, won enviable reputation, as Gen. A. P. Hill reports, by carrying &quot;the crest of a hill, and were in the camp of the enemy, but were driven back by overwhelming numbers. Toward night, Longstreet, A. P. Hill and Whiting united in a final charge on Porter s left, and in spite of the fact that he had been reinforced by Slocum, broke through his strong lines. Then, writes General Law, &quot;We had our innings. As the blue mass surged up the hill in our front, the Confederate fire was poured in with terrible effect. The target was a large one, the range short, and scarcely a shot fired into that living mass could fail of its errand. The debt of blood contracted but a few moments before was paid back with interest.’ In addition to the North Carolina troops in A. P. Hill s division, Whiting’s charge brought into the battle the Sixth North Carolina, under Col. I. E. Avery. They joined in the general charge, of which Whiting says: &quot;Spite of these terrible obstacles, over ditch and breastworks, hill, batteries and infantry, the division swept, routing the enemy from his stronghold. Many pieces of artillery were taken (14 in all), and nearly a whole regiment of the enemy. . . . Lieutenant-Colonel Avery was wounded, —