Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/83

Rh back McCall’s division, and seized Randol’s battery. Longstreet’s whole division now engaged, the troops in his front being those of McCall’s and Kearny’s divisions. The battle was forward for a time and McCall and Kearny gave ground, but Slocum reinforced Kearny against the Confederate left, and Sedgwick and Hooker against the right, so that Longstreet’s right was pushed back and his left checked and pressed. He was compelled to assume the defensive, and ordered up A. P. Hill to his immediate support. Gregg’s South Carolina brigade was thrown into the battle on the extreme left. Hill restored the battle to its first aggressive stage, and McCall s division was forced to retire, and that general fell into Longstreet s hands. Longstreet and Hill, with their twelve brigades, drove one of the Federal divisions from the field, and successfully resisted the attacks of the other four, gaining ground forward and holding in the end of the struggle all that they gained. Gregg, on the left, and Jenkins, in the center, bore their full share of the great contest, the latter capturing the battery of Randol, which, being retaken, was again captured by Hill’s advance.

The battle lasted well into the night, the Federal divisions leaving the field under the cover of darkness, followed by Franklin from White Oak, to take their places in McClellan’s last line on the James river. There is no report from either R. H. Anderson, Gregg or Jenkins. Longstreet specially mentions Anderson, Jenkins and Captain Kilpatrick of the Palmetto sharpshooters in his report, for distinguished conduct. A. P. Hill reports that Gregg was sent by General Longstreet s request to support the brigades of Pryor and Featherston, and pushed their battle forward. Featherston being wounded and for a time in the enemy’s hands, his brigade was driven back and scattered, &quot;when,&quot; says Hill, "Colonel McGowan, with the Fourteenth South Carolina, retrieved our ground. Special mention is made by General Hill in his report of Colonels McGowan, Edwards and Hamil-