Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/182

174 my line. These dispositions having been made, I ordered the command to advance en echelon by brigades from the right. The troops emerged from the woods seven hundred yards in front of the enemy's left, under heavy fire from infantry and artillery, and had advanced but a short distance when, on account of the wounding of one brigade commander (Evans), to whom explicit instructions had been given as to the movement of his (the leading) brigade, and the killing of several regimental commanders, and the difficulty of advancing in line through a field covered with wheat shocks and intersected by fences, the perfect alignment of this brigade was necessarily to some extent broken. However, this temporary confusion did not retard its advance, which, as I had anticipated, forced the enemy to change his front under fire. At this point, the Louisiana brigades, under the command of Brigadier General York, became engaged, and the two brigades (Evans' and York's) moved forward with much spirit, driving back the enemy's first line in confusion upon his second. After a brief halt at the fence from which this first line had been driven, I ordered a charge on the second line, which was equally successful. At this point I discovered a third line, which overlapped both my flanks and which was posted still more strongly in the deep cuts along the Georgetown road and behind the crest of the hill near the Monocacy bridge, and at once ordered Brigadier-General Terry, who as yet had not been engaged, to attack vigorously that portion of the enemy's line nearest the river, and from which my troops were receiving a severe flank fire. This brigade advanced with great spirit and in excellent order, driving the enemy from his position on a portion of the line. He still held most stubbornly his strong position in front of the other two brigades and upon my right. He also advanced at the same time two fresh lines of troops to retake the position from which he had been driven by Terry's brigade. These were repulsed with heavy loss and in great confusion. Having suffered severe loss in driving back two lines, either of which I believed equal in length to my command, and having discovered the third line longer than either of the others, and protected by the cuts in the road, and in order to avoid the great loss it would require to drive the enemy from his position by a direct front attack, I dispatched two staff officers in succession to ask for a brigade to use upon the enemy's flank. Ascertaining, however, that a considerable length of time must elapse before these could reach me, I at once ordered Brigadier-General Terry to change