Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/38

26 those on the left assaulting at once, and vigorously, the exposed right flank of the enemy, and at each assault checking, or repulsing, his advance. No attempt will be made by the author to follow the movements of all of these gallant troops who thus stemmed the sweeping advance of strong Federal brigades, and the fire of McDowell’s numerous batteries. He is confined, particularly, to the South Carolina commands.

The line of battle as now re-established, south of the Warrenton turnpike, ran at a right angle with the Bull run line, and was composed of the shattered commands of Bee, Bartow and Evans on the right, with Hampton s legion infantry; Jackson in the center, and Gartrell’s, Smith’s, Faulkner’s and Fisher’s regiments, with two companies of Stuart s cavalry, on the left. The artillery was massed near the Henry house. With this line the assaults of Heintzelman s division and the brigades of Sherman and Keyes, with their batteries, numbering some 18,000 strong, were resisted with heroic firmness.

By 2 o clock, Kershaw’s Second and Cash s Eighth South Carolina, General Holmes brigade of two regiments, Early s brigade, and Walker s and Latham’s batteries, arrived from the Bull run line and reinforced the left. The enemy now held the great plateau from which he had driven our forces, and was being vigorously assailed on his left by Kershaw and Cash, with Kemper’s battery, and by Early and Stuart. General Beauregard ordered the advance of his center and right, the latter further strengthened by Cocke’s brigade, taken by General Johnston’s order from its position at the stone bridge.

This charge swept the great plateau, which was then again in possession of the Confederates. Hampton fell, wounded in this charge, and Capt. James Conner took command of the legion. Bee, the heroic and accom plished soldier, fell at the head of the troops, and Gen. S. R. Gist, adjutant-general of South Carolina, was wounded leading the Fourth Alabama. Reinforced, the Federal