From the moment when
Johnson placed
Hill, then a MajorGen-eral, at the head of a division in March, 1862, till the last shock of arms at Bentonsville,
Hill's position on every march and in every battle, with scarcely a single exception, was the post of danger and honor.
His was the first division of
Johnston's army to enter
Yorktown and the last to leave it and pass with his command through the reserve line.
When the vanguard of the enemy, led by
Hancock, rushed upon our rear at
Williamsburg, it was
Basil C. Manly, of
Ramseur's Battery, who, seeing that a section of the enemy's light artillery might beat him in the race to occupy an earthwork midway between the two, unlimbered on the way and by a well directed shot disabled the enemy in transitu, and quick as thought limbered up again, and ran into the fortifications.
It was the regiment of
Duncan K. McRae, of
D. H. Hill's division, that extorted from the generous and gallant
Hancock that memorable declaration, ‘The Fifth North Carolina and Twenty-fourth Virginia deserve to have the word
immortal inscribed on their banners.’
It was this charge which
Early describes as ‘an attack upon the vastly superior forces of the enemy, which, for its gallantry, is unsurpassed in the annals of warfare.’
