[
398]
guns in rapid succession.
At the signal the men leaped the wall in their front and were promptly aligned by their company officers.
Kershaw writes, in
Battles and leaders: —
The brigade moved off at the word with great steadiness and precision, followed by Semmes with equal promptness.
Longstreet accompanied me in this advance on foot as far as the Emmitsburg road.
All the field and staff officers were dismounted on account of the many obstacles in the way.
‘When we were about the Emmitsburg road I heard Barksdale's drums beat the assembly and knew then that I should have no immediate support on my left about to be squarely presented to the heavy force of infantry and artillery at and in rear of the Peach Orchard.’
As such a position would be speedily ruinous,
Kershaw directed the three regiments on his left to wheel to the left and to charge the batteries in rear of the
Orchard, while with the right wing he continued the movement to the aid of
Hood's division.
Thus this brigade was also separated into two parts.
Kershaw moved with the right wing, and presently, finding his right regiment, the 7th S. C., beginning to overlap one on its left, he halted his line and ordered the 7th to move by the right flank.
By some misunderstanding the order was shouted to the left, and was overheard by the left wing, who supposed it was an order for themselves to move by the right flank.
Kershaw's narrative continues:—
‘After passing the building at Rose's, the charge of the left wing was no longer visible from my position, but the movement was reported to have been magnificently conducted until the cannoneers had left their guns and the caissons were moving off, when the order was given by some unauthorized person to “move by the right flank,” and was immediately obeyed by the men. The Federals returned to their guns and opened on these doomed regiments a raking fire of grape and canister at short distance which proved most disastrous, and for a time destroyed their usefulness.
Hundreds of the bravest and best men of Carolina fell victims of this fatal blunder.’
Meanwhile our own artillery fire had been kept up without intermission for what seemed more than two hours, though I know of no one who timed it. The range was very close, and the ground we occupied gave little shelter except at few points for the limbers and caissons.
Our losses both of men and horses
