Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 05.pdf/299

294 charged and taken about. 9½ P. M., after a hard conflict of two hours, in which the Second Maryland and the Third North Carolina were the chief sufferers. Among those who fell severely wounded was Colonel James R. Herbert, of the Second Maryland. The losses in the two regiments named were heavy, but the men were eager to press on to the crest of the hill. This, owing to the darkness and the lateness of the hour, it was resolved not to do. A Federal historian (B. J. Lossing, in his Pictorial History of the Civil War,) gives the following account of this night conflict: "Johnson moved under cover of the woods and deepening twilight, and expected an easy conquest by which a way would be opened for the remainder of Ewell's corps to the National rear; but he found a formidable antagonist in Greene's brigade. The assault was made with great vigor, but for more than two hours Greene, assisted by a part of Wadsworth's command, fought the assailants, strewing the wooded slope in front of the works with the Confederate dead and wounded, and holding his position firmly. Finally, his antagonist penetrated the works near Spangler's Spring, from which the troops had been temporarily withdrawn."—Vol. III, p. 691. This statement needs correction. There is no doubt of the fact that the works taken by Steuart's brigade that night were occupied by Federal troops and that they poured a deadly fire into its ranks. After this fire had been kept up for two hours those troops were indeed "withdrawn"—but the orders came from the men of Steuart's brigade, and they were delivered at the point of the bayonet.