Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/369

Rh I am quite aware that General Joseph E. Johnston has made a very summary disposition of that action and of the troops engaged in it in his "Narrative." He says, at page 122: "Early's brigade advanced in two equal detachments, commanded one by Major-General Hill and the other by himself. They were separated in a thick wood, and General Early, in issuing from it, found a redoubt near and in front of him. He attempted an assault, in which he was severely wounded; after which his two regiments were quickly defeated, with a loss of near four hundred men." I don't know where General Johnston obtained his information, but his Narrative is no more accurate than Colonel Bratton's. Early's brigade did not "advance in two detachments"; it advanced in single line of battle, as hereafter described.

If "one detachment was commanded by General Hill and the other by General Early," then Hill commanded the two intermediate regiments and Early commanded the two regiments on the flanks, and his command was "separated" at the start. Why I say so is, that the right and left regiments—the Fifth North Carolina and Twenty-fourth Virginia—were the two which participated in the fight; and the former got into it by advancing across the entire line of the two intermediate regiments—which were in the woods with General Hill—to the relief of the Twenty-fourth Virginia, already engaged.

If Early "attempted an assault" on a redoubt which, "in issuing, he found near and in front of him," then he did attempt to take the redoubt where Colonel Bratton was, and Colonel Bratton's mistake is only in thus designating the regiment, for this regiment that Early was leading was the Twenty-fourth Virginia. As the Fifth North Carolina had not then come up, I don't know how this is. But of this I am sure, that neither General Early, nor Colonel Terry, nor Lieutenant-Colonel Hairston, have ever supposed that they had a fight with friendly troops and received their wounds from Confederates. But if General Johnston's statement is correct, this must have been the case, for no "attempt to assault" a redoubt was made either by the Twenty-fourth Virginia or Fifth North Carolina after they came together. So if General Early was "severely wounded " in assaulting the redoubt described by General Johnston, then Colonel Bratton is entitled to the credit of it.

The Fifth North Carolina pursued the retreating enemy until part of his forces, in some confusion, ran into a redoubt, and, others, with less disorder, went behind it, and it then halted, and