Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/507

Rh company to take this regiment to the rear, the right of the skirmish line fired, as I afterwards learned from Col. Avery, at a person who rode up from the direction of the enemy, and called for "General Williams." This unknown person escaped, but the firing at him caused the whole skirmish line to open, and the enemy responded. Much heavier infantry firing was heard immediately afterwards in the direction of the plank-road, followed by a reopening of the enemy's artillery. General Pender now rode up and advised me not to advance, as General Jackson had been wounded, and he thought by my command. I did not advance, but went to the plank-road, where I learned that General Hill had also been wounded. I then, moreover, learned from Colonel John D. Barry, then major of the Eighteenth North Carolina regiment, that he knew nothing of Generals Jackson and Hill having gone to the front; that he could not tell friend from foe in such a woods; that when the skirmish line fired there was heard the clattering of approaching horsemen and the cry of cavalry, and that he not only ordered his men to fire, but that he pronounced the subsequent cry of friends to be a lie, and that his men continued to fire upon the approaching party. It was generally understood that night by my command and others that the Eighteenth regiment not only wounded Generals Jackson and Hill, but killed some of their couriers and perhaps some of their staff-officers, as some of them were missing. Colonel Barry, who was one of my bravest and most accomplished officers always thought that Generals Jackson and Hill were both wounded by his command.

After the wounding of these two generals, General Heth assumed command of Hill's division, countermanded the order for an advance, and directed me to form the whole of my brigade on the right of the plank-road. We were the only troops in line of battle on the right of the road until after we had repulsed a night attack made by the enemy, in which we captured a few prisoners and the colors of the Third Maine regiment. McGowan's brigade then prolonged our right, and we rested on our arms until next morning.

On the morning of the 3d we were ordered to make a direct attack upon the enemy's works, which were composed of logs hastily thrown together the night previous, in our front and on the slope of the hill facing the Chancellorsville hill. We carried the works but could not hold them on account of the concentrated murderous artillery fire from the Chancellorsville hill, under which the enemy threw forward fresh infantry. The brigade that was to have supported us did not come to our assistance, and before General Ramseur, then a brigadier, could get