Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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[452] the device of the division commanders, but the very disposition of the bodies left on the field indicated the evil influence of the intervening houses and fences on the morale of the advance. At the corners of every house lay a group of bodies, and probably the spot most thickly strewn on the field was a small space behind a high board fence, through which the rebel bullets passed easily, and from behind which the enemy could not fire in reply. The wounded had been removed from the place, but the dead left on the spot would have nearly formed a double rank of the length of the fence.

For a while the conflict again dwindled to an engagement of sharpshooters and artillery, and even the artillery firing was much slackened, for the guns on the Stafford Hills had damaged their own friends by shells falling a little short of their mark, and their fire was partially discontinued or diverted to other points, and only the guns in the city fired upon Marye's Hill. Meanwhile both parties reinforced their fighting lines and prepared for another struggle.

On the death of General Cobb, General Kershaw was ordered with two regiments to reinforce and take command of the position in the Telegraph road, and he now arrived with the Second South Carolina regiment. Colonel Kennedy and the Eighth South Carolina, Captain Stackhouse, which regiments, numbering some 700 men, were posted in the road, doubling on Philips's Legion and the Twenty-fourth Georgia. Brigadier-General Cooke had also been severely wounded during the last attack, and Colonel Hall, of the Forty-sixth North Carolina, had succeeded to the command of the brigade, and he now moved his own regiment from its position on the hill to join the Twenty-seventh North Carolina in the Telegraph road. General Ransom also brought forward the three remaining regiments of his brigade, and posted two of them near the crest of the hill in rear of the line of batteries, while the third, the Twenty-fifth North Carolina, under Lieutenant-Colonel Bryson, advanced down the slope into the Telegraph road after firing a few rounds from the crest at the enemy, who at that moment made his third effort with Howard's division. This division advanced from the lower part of the city, crossing the canal near the railroad, and in proceeding to join Hancock and French, was exposed to the artillery on Lee's and Howison's Hill, which took heavy toll from its columns. After joining the remnants of the preceding attacks, still sheltered in the valley, and firing from the ridge, this division also sought to snatch the coveted prize, but, like its predecessors, after being allowed to advance a short distance, it received a fire which it could not face, and fell back in confusion to the shelter of the slope.