previous next

[130] after my left was broken by the attack in rear and flank, the enemy in front had been so sharply repulsed that he did not venture to come again. Officers and men generally acted with gallantry.

Lieutenant Z. C. Gunn, Fourteenth.Tennessee, fell in the most gallant discharge of his duty.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hutchins, of the Nineteenth Georgia, mentions particularly the good conduct of Captain Mabry, Lieutenants W. H. Johnson and M. Edwards, Sergeant Shell, and Corporal Rogan.

Lieutenants 0. H. Thomas and George Lemmon, of my staff, rendered me gallant and efficient service throughout the action.

My loss in the action was forty killed, two hundred and eleven wounded, and one hundred and sixty-six missing, supposed to have been captured.

Among the wounded were Colonel Turney, Lieutenant-Colonel George, and Major Buchanan, of the First Tennessee; Captain Turney, the senior captain of the First Tennessee; Major Neil, of the Nineteenth Georgia; Major Vandegraff, of the Fifth Alabama battalion, and Mr. Frank Wotten, volunteer aid on my staff, the latter supposed to be mortally wounded.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. L. Archer, Brigadier-General, commanding Brigade.


Report of Brigadier-General Lane.

headquarters Lane's brigade, December 23, 1862.
Major B. C. Morgan, Assistant Adjutant-General:
Major: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of my brigade in the late engagement before Fredericksburg:

At half past 6 o'clock, on the morning of the twelfth, we left our bivouac and took the position assigned us on the railroad, my right being about two hundred and fifty yards to the left of the small piece of woods beyond the track, and my left resting on a dirt road, which crosses the railroad near the point where it makes a bend. Several batteries were to my left and rear, and General Pender some distance farther back, my left nearly covering his right. When I had made this disposition of my command, I rode to the right of General Archer's brigade, which was posted in the woods some four hundred yards from the railroad, and informed Colonel Turney, who was at that time commanding, that there was an open space between us of about six hundred yards. I also informed General Gregg of this opening; his command, which was to have been my support, being on the military road opposite this opening, and some five or six hundred yards from the railroad. I subsequently met General A. P. Hill, and spoke to him of our relative positions.

Nothing of interest occurred on Friday and Friday night. Saturday morning, I ordered the Seventh and Eighteenth regiments beyond the railroad to support three batteries, which had been placed on a hill immediately in their front. Lieutenant-Colonel Hill at once approached the captain of one of these batteries, told him he would insure its safety against any attempt on the part of the enemy to capture it, and that he must let him know when he wished him to move to the front. As soon as the fog lifted, heavy skirmishing commenced along my whole line, and the enemy were seen advancing. Our skirmishers, with the exception of Captain Turner's company, on the left, fell back. The batteries, just alluded to, then opened, with telling effect, and checked their advance. During this firing Captain Turner withdrew his company, as his men were suffering, and rejoined his regiment. Several pieces of the artillery, after firing a few rounds, hurried from the field, saying they were “choked.” On intimation, from one of the captains of the batteries, Lieutenant-Colonel Hill promptly moved his regiment to the crest of the hill in front of the enemy, and delivered a volley at the sharpshooters, who were in range; the artillery all limbering up and driving to the rear. The Seventh and Eighteenth both suffered from the enemy's artillery fire, and, at times, from their sharpshooters. About two hours later the enemy advanced in strong force across the open field to the right of my front. Colonel Barber, his regiment being on the right, informed me, through Adjutant Oates, of the advance, and wished to know what he must do should he be flanked. On being ordered to hold his position as long as possible, he deflected his three right companies, and formed them to the rear at right angles to the track. I at once sent my courier, Mr. Shepperd, to inform General A. P. Hill that the enemy were advancing in force upon the opening, Captain Hawks having been previously sent to apprise him that their skirmishers were in front of the same. Eight regiments were seen to pass to my right, and another to move “by the right flank by file left” between the same body of woods and the fence beyond the track. This last regiment then faced by the rear rank, and opened fire upon my right. The three right companies of the Thirty-seventh became hotly engaged, and General Gregg's command was soon after encountered on the military road. Although our right was turned by such a large force, our position was deemed too important to be given up without a blow; and nobly did both officers and men await the approach of another large force along our entire front. As this force was concealed from the Thirty-third, Eighteenth, and Seventh regiments by the hill, about forty yards beyond the track, they were cautioned to reserve their fire. The Twenty-eighth and Thirty-seventh, however, had open, level ground in their front, and, when the enemy had gotten within one hundred and fifty yards of our line, they opened a terrific and deadly fire upon them, repulsing their first and second lies, and checking the third. These two regiments were subjected not only to a direct, but to right and left oblique fires, that portion of the. enemy's force behind the hill, nearest the Twenty-eighth, firing upon them. As soon as the right of my command became engaged


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Tennessee (Tennessee, United States) (1)
Fredericksburg, Va. (Virginia, United States) (1)

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide People (automatically extracted)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
December 23rd, 1862 AD (1)
12th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: