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who moved against the enemy in the afternoon on the left o the plank-road, and met with some success in that quarter and suffered some loss.
General William Mahone, in his report (
Rebellion Record, Part 1, page 1090), says:
The next day (May 6th) we were with our troops on the plank-road, and where the fight was already earnestly progressing at an early hour.
We were at once assigned a position in support of a part of the line of Lieutenant-General Longstreet's front, but very soon after we were ordered to join and co-operate with Anderson's and Wofford's brigades, of that corps, in an attack upon the enemy's flank.
As the senior brigadier, I was, by Lieutenant-General Longstreet, charged with the immediate direction of this movement.
Wofford and Anderson were already in motion, and in a few minutes the line of attack had been formed, and the three brigades, in imposing order and with a step that meant to conquer, were now rapidly descending upon the enemy's left.
The movement was a success—complete as it was brilliant.
The enemy were swept from our front on the plank-road, where his advantages of position had already been felt by our line, and from which the necessity for his dislodgment had become a matter of much interest.
Besides this valuable result, the plank-road had been gained and the enemy's lines bent back in much disorder; the way was opened for greater fruits.
His long lines of dead and wounded which lay in the wake of our swoop furnished evidence that he was not allowed time to change front, as well as the execution of our fire.
Among his wounded, Brigadier-General Wadsworth, commanding a division, fell into our hands.
Lieutenant-Colonel G. M. Sorrel, of General Longstreet's staff, who was with me in conducting this movement, and Captain Robertson Taylor,1 Assistant Adjutant-General of Mahone's brigade, who was wounded in the fight, specially deserve my earnest commendation for efficiency and conspicuous gallantry on this occasion.
The casualties of the brigade were as follows: Officers, one killed and three wounded; men, nineteen killed, one hundred and twenty-three wounded, seven missing; total, twenty killed, one hundred and twenty-six wounded, seven missing.
The historian
Swinton, in his work above mentioned, at page 433, says:
