Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/156

 146 Southern Historical Society Papers.

right, held by Fitz John Porter, and all had failed ; and we soon knew why. He had twenty thousand United States regulars behind the strongest field fortifications that I had ever seen, both from con- struction and position."

The battle of Games' Mill one of the most sanguinary conflicts of the Seven Days' Battle, occurred June 2yth, and General Stonewall Jackson thus reports of two of the brigades of General Whiting's division (although the General was only a Brigadier in actual rank). Jackson says :

" Dashing on with unfaltering step, in the face of those murderous discharges of canister and musketry, General Hood and Col. E. M. Law, at the head of their respective brigades, rushed to the charge with a yell. Moving down a precipitous ravine, leaping ditch and stream, clambering up a difficult ascenc, and exposed to an incessant and deadly fire from the entrenchments, these brave and determined men pressed forward, driving the enemy from his well-selected and fortified position. In this charge, in which upwards of a thousand men fell, killed and wounded, before the fire of the enemy, and in which fourteen pieces of artillery and nearly a regiment were captured, the Fourth Texas, under the lead of General Hood, were the first to pierce these strongholds and seize the guns."

The Sixth North Carolina participated in this famous charge. General E. M. Law, commanding one of these brigades under Whit- ing, describes the action fully in the "Southern Bivouac" (1867). He says :

" By 5 P. M., on the 2yth June, the battle of Games' Mill was in full progress all along the lines. Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's men were attacking in the most determined manner, but were met with a courage as obstinate as their own, by the Federals who held the works.

' ' After each bloody repulse, the Confederates only waited long enough to reform their shattered lines, or to bring up their supports, when they would again return to the assault. Besides the terrific fire in front, a battery of heavy guns on the south side of the Chick - ahominy was in full play upon their right flank.

"There was no opportunity for maneuvering or flank attacks, as was the case with D. H. Hill, on our extreme left. The enemy was directly in front, and he could only be reached in that direction. If he could not be driven out before night it would be equivalent to a