Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/81

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an honorable and useful one if he had been spared. Major Petty h.iving remained in camp sick, Captain Chambers, of Company C, \\.i> left iii command. \\ r e held our position until all tin- troops on our right had (alien hack, and most of those on our left. When the order to fall back finally reached us, the retreat was made under the most trying circumstances. We were exposed to a raking tire from three directions, many were falling at every step, but at last we returned to our lines with but a remnant of the command, having sustained the greatest loss in killed, wounded and prisoners the Forty -ninth met with during the war. Captain Torrance, of Com- pany H, was wounded, Lieutenant Krider, of Company C, was wounded and captured, and Lieutenant Witherington, of Company I, was wounded. The brigade lost 700 men in all, of which the pro- portion of the Forty-ninth was the greatest.

After the failure of the attack on Grant's lines, evidently a forlorn hope on (ieneral Lee's part, we returned to our quarters on the right. On March 301 h we participated in the battle of Burgess' Mill, and drove the enemy back into his entrenchments after he had assaulted ours. On the 3Oth we were, with Wallace's South Caro- lina Brigade, attached to Pickett's Division, and the next morning were marched down the White Oak road to Five Forks, the Fed- eral cavalry making frequent reconnoisances to ascertain our move- ments. From Five Forks we marched on to Dinwiddie Courthouse and engaged in battle that afternoon with Sheridan's cavalry, driv- ing them back. We slept on the field. During the night the force in our front was largely reinforced, and before day, on April ist, we were aroused and slowly fell back to Five Forks. By noon we had reached that place and formed line of battle, Ransom's Brigade on the left, the Twenty-fourth holding the extreme left, next the Fifty- sixth, the Twenty-fifth, Forty-ninth and Thirty-fifth. We threw up rifle pits, and after the whole regiment had been deployed as skir- mishers by Captain Chambers to support the Twenty-fourth, the line was formed as above mentioned, with Wallace's Brigade on our right. The skirmishers and sharpshooters of the brigade were placed under the command of Lieutenant Roulhac, and connected with our cavalry on the left. These dispositions had hardly been completed when clouds of Federal skirmishers were advanced against our skirmish line, but these were held at bay. Twice they charged with lines of kittle, and were driven back by our skirmishers. Heavy columns of infantry Warren's whole Corps were observed
 * y on our left, and moving around our flank. Frequent