Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/147

Rh and clear the wood on our left of the enemy's skirmishers. This was done, and the enemy was discovered in the woods, drawn up in line of battle, at not over three hundred yards from the west of the stone wall. The brigade then formed in line of battle at right angles to the breastwork—in the following order: Third North Carolina, First Maryland, Thirty-seventh Virginia, Twenty-third Virginia, First North Carolina—and charged towards the enemy's second breastworks, partly through an open field and partly through a wood, exposed to a very heavy fire of artillery and musketry, the latter in part a cross fire.

The left of the brigade was the most exposed at first, and did maintain its position in line of battle. The right thus in advance suffered very severely, and, being unsupported, wavered, and the whole line fell back, but in good order.

The enemy's position was impregnable attacked by our small force, and any further effort to storm it would have been futile and attended with great disaster, if not total annihilation.

The brigade rallied quickly behind rocks and reformed behind the stone wall which ran parallel to the breastworks, where it remained about an hour exposed to a fire of artillery and infantry more terrific than any experienced during the day, although less disastrous.

Ultimately, in accordance with orders from the Major-General Commanding, the brigade fell back to the creek, where it remained the rest of the day, nearly half of it being deployed as skirmishers. During the night the enemy advanced their line some distance beyond the breastworks, but were driven back to them again. Toward midnight the brigade, with the rest of the division, recrossed the creek, and passing to the rear of the town, occupied and entrenched itself on the crest of the hill where the enemy had been posted on the first day of the engagement.

It affords me the greatest pleasure to say that the officers and men of the brigade, with a few exceptions of the latter, conducted themselves most gallantly, and bore the fatigue and privations of several days in a soldierlike manner. The commanding officer of the different regiments of the brigade—Colonel Warren, Tenth Virginia; Lieutenant-Colonel Walton, Twenty-third Virginia; Major Wood, Thirty-seventh Virginia; Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, First North Carolina; Major Parsley, Third North Carolina, and Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert, First Maryland battalion, who was dangerously wounded the evening of the 2d; his successor, Major