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

[165] perhaps, the farthest advance of the attack, actually getting among the enemy's guns, where lay the body of a handsome young Louisiana officer, next morning, the farthest jetsam of the red wave which had stained all the green fields of our advance. Both of these brigades had been forced to fall back, not so much from the fire of the enemy in their front, as from that of their friends farther on the left, advancing on converging lines in the dusk. There were more troops concentrated in the forest in a small space than could be well handled, even in daylight; and the plateau over which their charge was to be made, when they got free of the wood, was so bare of shelter, and swept by such fire of musketry and artillery, that not a single brigade faced it long without being driven back. The official reports show that in the storm and smoke around them single brigades often thought themselves to be the only ones engaged.

D. H. Hill, whose advance was across the plateau, thus describes the attack by his division:—

While conversing with my brigade commanders, shouting was heard on our right, followed by the roar of musketry. We all agreed that this was the signal agreed upon, and I ordered my division to advance. This, as near as I could judge, was about an hour and a half before sundown. . . .

‘The division fought heroically and well, but fought in vain. Garland, in my immediate front, showed all his wonted courage and enthusiasm, but he needed and asked for reenforcements. I sent Lt.-Col. Newton, 6th Ga., to his support, and, observing a brigade by a fence in our rear, I galloped back to it and found it to be that of Gen. Toombs. I ordered it forward to support Garland, and accompanied it. The brigade advanced handsomely to the brow of the hill, but soon retreated in disorder. Gordon, commanding Rodes's brigade, pushed gallantly forward and gained considerable ground, but was forced back. The gallant and accomplished Meares, 3d N. C., Ripley's brigade, had fallen at the head of his regiment, and that brigade was streaming to the rear. Colquitt's and Anderson's brigades had also fallen back. Ransom's brigade had come up to my support from Gen. Huger. It moved too far to the left and became mixed up with a mass of troops near the parsonage on the Quaker road, suffering much and effecting little. Gen. Winder was sent up by Gen. Jackson, but he came too late, and also went to the same belt of woods near the parsonage, already overcrowded with troops. Finally Gen. Ewell came up, but it was after dark, and nothing could be accomplished. I advised him to hold the ground he had gained and not to attempt a forward movement.’