Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/473

 Ope7ritions in Front of Fetersburr/. 463

occupied by Hagood's left, and under cover of the hill. As was directed, the artillery from the batteries on the north side of the river opened fire upon the entrenchments of the enemy as soon as the morning's mist had cleared away, and continued its fire with great accuracy, but no execution, for half an hour. After the lapse of five minutes the fire of these guns was directed upon the batteries of the enemy, drawing, in a great degree, their fire from the advancing infantry, which, as far as I could see, was the only service rendered by our guns. Indeed, I fear we were injured more than we gained by the use of our guns, as it notified the enemy of our intended attack. My intention was to attack immediately after our guns opened upon the enemy's batteries, but as General Anderson had not reported I delayed, and immediately one of his staff officers appeared, by whom General Anderson was informed that in fifteen minutes the advance would certainly take place, which would give him time to reach the entrenchments then occupied by General Hagood. At the appointed time the advance was ordered, and immediately the second line followed. The first line gallantly entered the entrenchments of the enemy and did their duty nobly, and, as was witnessed by General Lee himself, succeeded not only in breaking the enemy, but drove them from their works.

It was never expected that the entrenchments of the enemy could be held by these two lines of skirmishers, but that they should occupy them until the line of battle could reach them. As was before stated, the second line of skirmishers followed immediately the first, but was not allowed to go beyond the line of rifle-pits, as it was discovered that the supporting line of battle had not appeared, and had they gone on would have shared the fate of the first line. I then asked Major-General Field, who was upon the ground, to order Anderson forward, as a moment's delay would be fatal. He immediately sent the order, which had been previously sent, to General Anderson to go forward. (It is proper here for me to state that this was my third effort to get General Anderson forward after my first notice to him that "in fifteen minutes I would certainly move forward.")

Some time after General Field's second order was sent to General Anderson he received a note from him stating that the entrenchments were still occupied by General Hagood's troops. In this he was greatly mistaken, as will be seen by General Hagood's report, and if necessary to prove this mistake, I can produce a statement from Col- onel Dubose, commanding Benning's brigade (who by this time had moved up in line of batde on the right of General Anderson's posi-