Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/712

Rh, Lieut.-Col. A. M. Nelson; and the Fifty-fifth North Carolina.

In the fight of May 12th at the "bloody angle," Spottsylvania, Harris' brigade charged and regained a portion of the captured works, which they held under an enfilading fire from 7 a. m. on the 12th until 3:30 of the next day, exposed to a constant and destructive fire of musketry and artillery, both from the front and flank. To add to their discomfiture, a cold, drenching rain filled the trenches. Man after man was shot down in the effort to bring them ammunition, but some escaped death at this work, defying a fire that cut down and hewed to splinters trees 22 inches in diameter. Courier A. W. Hancock and Private F. Dolan, of the Forty-eighth, were particularly distinguished in this service. The brigade lost some of its most valuable officers, including the gallant Colonel Baker, Lieut.-Col. A. M. Feltus, Adjt. D. B. L. Lowe and Ensign Mixon of the Sixteenth; Colonel Hardin and Adjutant Peel, of the Nineteenth; Captains McAfee, Davis and Reynhardt of the Forty-eighth, and Lieutenant Bew of the Twelfth. Maj. E. C. Councell (afterward promoted colonel and killed), Capt. Harry Smith and Private Edward Perault of the Sixteenth; Lieut.-Col. S. B. Thomas of the Twelfth, and Courier Charles Weil were mentioned for conspicuous bravery. Gen. Samuel McGrowan, part of whose brigade got into a portion of the trenches, reported that his men "found in the trenches General Harris and what remained of his gallant brigade, and they (Mississippians and Carolinians), mingled together, made one of the most gallant and stubborn defenses recorded in history."

Davis' brigade took part in the fighting at the Wilderness with Longstreet and during the entire campaign, held the lines east of Richmond, and in August fought with gallantry at Ream's Station.

Kershaw's division reinforced Early in the Shenandoah