Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/210

196 Mill, as the movement on our part of the field seemed to have been general, and the enemy gave way all along the line, though if any other regiment accomplished any greater results than the 5th at the Second Manassas, the annals of the war fail to show it.

At Antietam, or Sharpsburg, seventeen days later, the Texas Brigade materially aided Lee to repulse and hold the enemy at bay, thus winning another victory. At this time, by the long marches of the campaign, and by the casualties of battle, the effective force of the three regiments, all told, was about 850. On our part of the field, which was the left, we constituted both support and reserve.

On this battle-ground about 35,000 Confederate troops confronted about 140,000 Federals, under General McClellan, who had again resumed command of the Army of the Potomac. The conflict on our part of the field began about sunrise, and soon raged fiercely in our immediate front. The word came that the brigades of Lawton, Trimble, and Hays were being hard pressed, and Hood's Division, composed of an Alabama Brigade, under Law, and the Texas Brigade, under Colonel Wofford, of the 18th Georgia, were ordered forward. When the troops emerged from the timber and passed the old church and into the open corn field, a herculean task lay before them. Down the slant of the hill stood the remnant of the division before mentioned. They still held their position, but were unable to advance. Beyond them in the open and in the timber stood a solid field of blue, at least three columns deep. To an observer it looked as if the whole of Hooker's Corps was there.

As we occupied a position on the hill, and above the Confederate line in front, the fire of the enemy played havoc in the ranks of the supporting column. In vain did the officers in charge of Hays' and Trimble's Brigades urge them to charge, and in vain did the Texas Brigade add its entreaties to theirs. The line would neither advance nor retreat; its ranks were decimated, and its fire was ineffective. Suddenly, as if moved by a single impulse, the Texans, unable to be restrained longer by their commanding officers, charged over the line of our own