Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/81

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ind displaying the most unflinching courage.* Their conduct was ndeed splendid. Their situation, as we have seen, became so distress- ng that the officers were ordered to make their men run out of the works in squads, and get back into their own lines as best they could. It required considerable time to communicate the order from the several division headquarters down to the men through their re-

Ispective brigade and regimental commanders. In several instances, staff officers bearing these orders were shot down, and the orders were not communicated and had to be repeated. The smoke and noise of the artillery, mortars and small arms, whose fire was con- centrated on the few acres around Steadman occupied by the Con- federate troops, was so great that it was difficult either to see or to hear at any distance. Many of the captured troops undoubtedly never received the order, and fought the enemy in front, not knowing that their comrades had left until they received a fire from the flank and rear, which cut off flight and forced surrender. Most of the commands, however, had received the order before the countercharge began, and it burst upon the Confederates just as their line of battle, in several places, was leaving the captured works, and had turned their backs upon the enemy to regain our own retrenchments. Under these circumstances, the number taken prisoners was not exception- ally large compared to the number engaged, and it does not at all sustain the verdict that the troops did not fight well, or that their morale had been so impaired that they could no longer be relied on for offensive movements.

GRANT'S COUNTER MOVEMENT.

General Meade thinking the Confederate line, owing to the con- centration at Steadman, must be weak on our right, furiously attacked the Confederate lines at several places, but with the exception of the capture of an entrenched picket line in front of General Wright's corps met with little success. Our loss in these affairs was about one thousand, and the enemy's is believed to be about the same.

The situation of the Confederate army was now indeed disheart-

that day, says : "All the troops engaged, including two brigades under Briga- dier General Ransom, behaved most handsomely. The conduct of the sharp- shooters of Gordon's corps, who led the assault, deserves the highest com- mendation."
 * General Lee, in a dispatch sent to the Secretary of War at 11.20 P. M.