Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

[405] disputed arena was a wheat field nearly surrounded by woods on the west of Plum Run, here running south through marshy ground. The tide of battle rolled back and forth across this field several times, and when Ayres's regulars were driven back and pursued, Sykes ordered forward his last division, Crawford's, called the Pa. Reserves, two brigades under McCandless and Fisher. Crawford formed in two lines, the second massed on the first, and his report thus describes the scene as he approached it:—

‘Our troops in front, after a determined resistance, unable to withstand the force of the enemy, fell back, and some finally gave way. The plain to my front was covered with fugitives from all divisions, who rushed through my lines and along the road to the rear. Fragments of regiments came in disorder, and without their arms, and for a moment all seemed lost. The enemy's skirmishers had reached the foot of the rocky ridge (Little Round Top) and his columns were following rapidly.’

One is tempted to pause for a moment to contemplate the really hopeless situation of the Confederate battle. Already Sickles's six brigades had been reenforced by 10 brigades which had been defeated one, two, or three at a time, with losses to the reenforcements alone of 3108 men and five generals. The eight Confederate brigades had themselves suffered terribly and lost four generals. All had marched fully 20 miles within 24 hours, and the attack, much of it through woods and over rugged ground, had mingled commands and broken ranks. Infantry can never deliver their normal amount of fire except in regular ranks, shoulder to shoulder. When ranks are broken the men interfere with and mask each other. To say nothing of probable need of ammunition at this stage of the action, one must recognize that now, as the 11th and 12th brigades of the Federal reenforcements approach, the Confederate need of at least a fresh division is great. There are not only no reenforcements on the way, but none within two miles.

Both Hill and Ewell have orders to cooperate with Longstreet's battle, but they are limiting their cooperation to ineffective cannonading of the enemy's intrenchments in their front, while the enemy is stripping these of infantry and marching fresh divisions to concentrate upon Hood and McLaws, and the three brigades of Wilcox, Perry, and Wright, which had