Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/216

212 Col. Atkinson was severely wounded, and Capt. Lawton, the brigade adjutant, mortally wounded while gallantly leading his brigade. The attack on Hill's left was repulsed by the artillery on that part of the line which, in its turn, was assaulted by a furious cannonade from 24 guns. One brigade of the enemy moved up Deep Run, sheltered by its banks from our batteries, and surprised the flank of Pender's picket line, capturing an officer and 15 men of the 16th North Carolina regiment, but it was charged by the 16th N. C, of Pender's brigade, under the gallant Colonel McElroy, 57th N. C., under Col. Godwin, and 54th N. C., under Col. McDowell, of Hood's division, and driven back, the 57th leading and the others following in support. These two last regiments were under fire for the first time. The repulse on the right was decisive, and was not renewed, but the batteries and the sharpshooters kept up a brisk firing at intervals during the whole evening. Pender's brigade was placed in position on Friday morning early, on the extreme left of the division, where they had no shelter, not a log, or a tree, or an embankment, from the artillery of the enemy. Friday was taken up by skirmishing, and now and then a slight artillery duel.

There is no severer test of the mettle of troops than to be placed thus under a hot and deadly fire without protection and in a state of inaction. On Saturday, from early morn until late in the evening, this brigade had been exposed to a most destructive fire of shell, solid shot, and musketry. The artillery fire, at many times during the day, exceeded anything I ever saw, unless, perhaps, at Malvern Hill and Gettysburg. A spectator of the scene has, in words beyond my power, described it: "Such a scene at once terrific and sublime, mortal eye never rested upon before, unless it be the bombardment of Sebastopol by the combined batteries of France and England; never was there a more fearful manifestation of the hate and fury of man. The roar of hundreds of pieces of artillery, the bright jets of issuing flame, the screaming, hissing, shrieking projectiles, the wreaths of smoke as shell after shell burst into the still air, the savage crash of shattered forest, formed a scene likely to sink