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| Army Cabin.1 |
October 28, 1864. |
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of more than two hours of exhausting efforts, he reached a position directly on the flank of the Confederate line, with the run between his forces and Warren's main body.
The latter, finding the nature of the country very different from what he supposed it to be, ordered Crawford to halt until Meade could be consulted.
At the same time Gibbon's division, under General Eagan, was pushing out from Hancock's column, to form a connection with Crawford's; but so dense was the tangled wood of the swamp, that each commander was ignorant of the proximity of the other, though the distance between them was scarcely a mile.
These movements had been eagerly watched by the Confederates, and Hill's leading division, under Heth, was sent to attack Hancock's isolated force before the remainder of the Army of the Potomac should cross Hatcher's Run.
Heth moved so stealthily, that the first intimation of his presence was given at four o'clock in the afternoon by volleys of musketry and a furious charge upon Pierce's brigade of Mott's division.
That startled brigade gave way, and left two guns.
as spoil for the assailants.
The latter eagerly pursued the: fugitives over an open space along the Boydton road, when they were struck heavily by Eagan, who, on hearing the sounds of battle in his rear, had changed front and hastened to the rescue.
He swept down the plank road with the brigades of Smythe and Willett of his own division, and McAllister's brigade of Mott's division,.while the brigade of De Trobriand and Kirwin's dismounted cavalry advanced at the same time.
The Confederates were driven back, the guns were recaptured, and a thousand of their men were made prisoners.
Others, in their flight, to the number of two hundred, rushed into Crawford's lines, and were captured.
Had that officer been ordered to advance at that moment, the capture or dispersion of Heth's whole force might have been the result.
Ayres was on the way, but night fell, and he halted before reaching Hancock, who, meanwhile, had been sorely pressed on his left and rear by five brigades of cavalry under Wade Hampton.
Gregg fought them gallantly, and Hancock sent him all the infantry supports he could spare.
The conflict continued until after dark, and the Confederates had gained no ground, when the struggle known as the battle of the Boydton road ended.
In these encounters Hancock lost about fifteen hundred men, and his antagonist at least an equal number.
Uncertain whether the forces of Ayres and Crawford
would join him in time to meet or make an attack the next morning, and his ammunition being short, Hancock withdrew at midnight, and the whole army was behind the intrenchments at Petersburg, and those of Warren on the Weldon road, the following morning.
1 this shows the form of some of the better class of Army cabins. They were generally made of rough logs. In the common style of cabins on the frontier. Some of the chimneys were built of bricks procured by the destruction of houses, and others — were made of wood and mud, and surmounted by a barrel.
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