Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/131

Rh going to say in just praise of that most gallant charge of Reno's division, to which General Longstreet's article has done gross injustice, shall be a setoff to any suspicion of a want of "true loyalty" on my part.

It may be considered very presumptuous for one who rose to no higher rank than that of Colonel to contradict the assertions of a Lieutenant-General; and I should probably not dare to do so, were it not that I have an ocular proof of what I am going to state in the shape of the scar of a wound on my right hand, which is staring me in the face as I write this, and which was received in retaking our lines which had been broken by Reno's men after they had been "repulsed" by General Longstreet's artillery.

The facts of the case are about as follows:

The lines of Jackson and Longstreet formed a considerably angle, and the artillery was placed on a hill just between the two corps. The Federals, in advancing to attack Jackson, were exposed for more than half a mile to the fire of this artillery. Jackson's troops were in two lines—the front occupying the line of the uncompleted railroad, and the second being in a wood about a quarter of a mile or less in rear of the first. My regiment belonged to Field's brigade (of A. P. Hill's division), which was just in rear of the Louisiana brigade and the Stonewall brigade. The former was stationed at a very deep cut of the railroad, and the latter just where the cut ran out, and where there was but little protection. The cut was too deep to fight from, and the Louisiana brigade took position beyond it, behind the dirt which had been thrown out and which formed an excellent breastwork.

Reno's men, advancing under the fire of our artillery, fought the Louisianians until the ammunition of the latter was exhausted, and then drove them back into the deep cut, where they were fighting with stones, when relieved by our brigade. The Stonewall brigade, not having the same protection as the Louisiana brigade, was broken and scattered through the woods. It was then that the second line was ordered forward to retake the position. I do not know how much more of our first line was broken, and I am confining myself to what I know of my own personal knowledge and what I saw with my own eyes.

The charge of the Federals on this occasion was not surpassed in gallantry by any that was made during the war—not even by Pickett at Gettysburg.

To have passed through such a fire of artillery, which almost