Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 30.djvu/156

 148 Southern Historical Society Papers.

eral D. H. Hill's troops to take the extreme left, so that the battle on the right had already opened and had been under way for some time before General Jackson's two divisions his old division, which had just completed the whole of the memorable Valley campaign, and General Ewell's division, which had participated in all of it except the battle of McDowell and the advance to Franklin got into position.

The attacks of Longstreet and A. P. Hill, Whiting, and Hood, though sometimes repulsed, finally carried the apparently impreg- nable position. Hood's Texans claimed to have made the breach.

It was late in the evening before Jackson's old division, in which the writer served as a staff officer of the " Stonewall" Brigade, then commanded by General Charles S. Winder, of Maryland, that type of gallant officer and courteous gentleman, was brought into action. Shortly before dark General Lee ordered a charge to be made across the whole field. I can only speak particularly of what fell under my own observation. Into the woods and through the swamp we went, the men wading waist-deep and the water reaching the saddle girths of the horses. Emerging on the other side we came upon a fierce battle raging all around. Some of the troops were still lying down, and on giving the command, by General Winder's direction, that it was General Lee's order that all troops on the field must charge, one regimental commander replied that if I would bring him the order from his brigade commander he would obey it. There was no time to waste in that way, so I left him to his own cogitations and rode on. The cannon around the McGhee house "volleyed and thundered," and as it was now dark the flashes of the guns seemed to be directly in our faces, and it was easy to hear the orders of command from the enemy's officers. Poor Mitchell, of our staff, a gallant youth who had joined us but a few days before as a volunteer aide to General Winder, was killed in this charge. Night fell with the entire field in the possession of the Confederate troops and large supplies of small arms and cannon. That night General John F. Reynolds (afterward killed at Gettysburg), commanding a brigade of Pennsylvania reserves, was brought to our headquarters, having unwittingly ridden into our lines, so close together were the opposing armies.

Next day, by direction of General Jackson, on whose staff I had formerly served, I was directed to take charge of all ordnance stores on that portion of the field. In discharge of this duty, and with a proper regard for No. i, I supplied myself with an excellent artillery officer's saddle, which was about to be appropriated by an infantry-