Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/345

 Artillery Work at Wilderness. 341

From the Times-Dispatch, November 26, 1905.

ARTILLERY WORK AT WILDERNESS.

Splendid Service of Big Guns Told As Relaled By Major

Garber.

Note on the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Battles and the Artillery.

The following note on the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battles, with reference to the position of the Staunton Artillery of Cut- shaw's Battalion, is by its well-known and much honored captain, A. W. Garber, now of Richmond, a hero of many fights.

I have visited the field with him, and he there located the posi- tion of one section on the road that intersected the entrenchments of Edward Johnson's division, as it runs from the Germania plank road to the Orange and Fredericksburg pike. The other section was on the right of this pike.

The great battles of May loth and I2th were memorable achieve- ments of defense, and as such history contains no parallel. Lee, as a field officer, in dire emergencies of action, showed himself and made himself felt in a way never surpassed by the general of an army, and his troops alike were up to the highest standard.

LEE'S COUNTERBREAKS SAVED THE FIELD.

Although much has been written of these battles, no accurate and full account has ever appeared, and these field notes by partici- pants of Captain Garber' s reliability furnish material which will illumine the historic page that surely will be forthcoming.

The Captain gives cumulative testimony to the facts, now well understood, that General Edward Johnson was not surprised, and that the removal of the guns during the night of the nth was in the act of being remedied, though too late to assure the success that might have otherwise been expected. He ako confirms the oft expressed opinion of Confederate officers that had the artillery not been displaced the assaults of the enemy would have been re- pulsed throughout.

JOHN W. DANIEL.