Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/330

318 fire of grape and cannistercanister [sic] into our thinned ranks as we retired slowly down the slope into the valley below. I continued to fall back, until reaching a slight depression a few hundred yards in advance of our skirmish line in the morning, when I halted, reformed my brigade, and awaited the further pursuit of the enemy. Finding the enemy not disposed to continue his advance, a line of skirmishers was thrown out in my front, and a little after dark my command moved to the position which we had occupied before the attack was made.

In this charge my loss was very severe, amounting to six hundred and eighty-eight in killed, wounded and missing—including many valuable officers.

I have not the slightest doubt but that I should have been able to maintain my position on the height, and secured the captured artillery, if there had been a protecting force on my left, or if the brigade on my right had not been forced to retire.

We captured over twenty pieces of artillery, all of which we were compelled to abandon. These pieces were taken by the respective regiments composing the brigade, as follows: The Third Georgia, eleven pieces; Twenty-second Georgia, three pieces; Forty-eighth Georgia, four pieces; and the Second battalion several pieces, the exact number not ascertained, but believed to amount to as many as five or six pieces. I am gratified to say that all the officers and men behaved in the most handsome manner indeed, I have never seen their conduct excelled on any battlefield in this war.

In the list of casualties, I am pained to find the name of Colonel Joseph Warden, commanding the Twenty-second Georgia regiment, who was killed at the head of his command near the Emmettsburg turnpike. The service contained no better or truer officer, and his death, while deeply deplored by his friends and associates, will be a serious loss to the Confederacy.

Major George W. Ross, commanding Second Georgia battalion, was seriously wounded, fell into the hands of the enemy, and has since died. This gallant officer was shot down while in the enemy's works, on the crest of the heights, endeavoring to have some of the captured artillery removed. As a disciplinarian he had no superior in the field. An accomplished gentleman and gallant officer, the country will mourn his loss.

Colonel William Gibson, commanding Forty-eighth Georgia