Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/545

 The Campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg. 539

and that it would be an unnecessary waste of life to attack the part still held by the enemy. The orders to make the attack were-coun- termanded by General Lee. This countermanding order reached General Field in time, but did not reach General Pickett until "his troops were already involved in the attack under his orders. Gen- eral Pickett sent a message to General Gregg, of the Texas brigade, of Fields's division, which was next to his right, urging him to go in and protect his flank. Gregg consented at once, but could not wisely move until he had sent a like message to the troops on his right, as the interval between the line held by our troops and that held by the enemy widened much from left to right in front of Fields's division. At this moment, however, Pickett's advancing lines opened fire, and in an in- stant the men of the brigades of Fields's division, on General Gregg's right (first squads of men and officers, then the standards, and then whole regiments), leaped over our entrenchments and started in the charge without orders, and General Gregg and his Texans rushed forward with them, and in a few moments the line was ours. It was a gallant sight to see, and a striking evidence of the high spirit and splendid elan of troops who had now been fighting more than forty days, in one continuous strain of bloody battles. It was a haz- ardous movement, as the position attacked was a very strong one, but it was found to be held by a mere handful of the enemy, and our loss was very slight. I have been thus particular in the details of this incident, of which I was an eye-witness, as General Lee, who was at the Clay House, was not acquainted with all the iacts when he sent the well known message to General Anderson, mentioning only Pickett's men.

On the next day, June i8th, General Lee marched to Petersburg with the van of his army, Kershaw's division, with which he at once reinforced Beauregard's troops in the line of defence. Both generals were on the field that day, when the assault along the whole line was made by the Federal corps, which met with such a complete and bloody repulse. During the action a young artillery officer fell by General Lee's side, shot through the body. The attack made no impression whatever on our lines. The easy repulse of the Federal c<:»rps on this occasion, and the result of the attack made by Hill with a part of Wilcox's and Mahone's divisions on the Second and Sixth corps, near the Jerusalem plank road, on the 21st, when sixteen hun- dred prisoners and four pieces of artillery were captured by Mahone, made it plain that the opportunity had arrived for a decisive blow. So, on the night of the 22d General Lee sent for General Alexander,