Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[501] division, rode rapidly to the right, faced Fearing's brigade to the left, and hurled them upon the flank of the Confederates, who were heavily pressing the broken center. The scene of conflict was in a densely wooded swamp, dark, and wet, and dismal. “Push right in the direction of that heaviest firing,” shouted Davis to Fearing, as he gave him the order to move, “and attack whatever is in that swamp! Fight them for the best that is in your brigade! You'll stop that advance, sir, and we'll whip them yet!” The men caught up the words “we'll whip them yet,” and dashed forward in an impetuous charge, under the immediate directions of Davis. That charge was a magnificent display of courage, discipline, and enthusiasm. The Confederates were staggered and paralyzed by this unexpected and stunning blow from a force hitherto unseen by them. They reeled and fell back in amazement, fearing they knew not what, and the attack was not renewed on that part of the field for more than an hour afterward. The army was saved! In that charge the gallant young General Fearing, the commander of the brigade, was disabled by a bullet, and hundreds of its dead and wounded strewed the field of conflict.

The check thus given to the Confederates was of infinite value to Sherman's army, for it gave an opportunity for re-forming the disordered left and center of Davis's line. It was drawn back and formed in open fields, half a mile in the rear of the old line. The artillery was massed on a commanding knoll, so as to sweep the whole space between the woods wherein the Confederates were stationed and the new line; and Kilpatrick massed his cavalry on the left. Meanwhile, the attack upon Morgan was terrible and unceasing. “Seldom have I heard such continuous and remorseless roar of musketry,” said an actor in the scene.¹ “It seemed more than men could bear. Twice General Davis turned to me and said, ‘If Morgan's troops can stand this, all is right; if not, the day is lost. There is no reserve — not a regiment to move — they must fight it out.’ And fight it out they did. They were entirely surrounded. I, myself, trying to get to them from the rear, three times ran into heavy bodies of the enemy's troops. Two or three different times, after resisting attacks from the front, they were compelled to jump over their own works and fight to the rear. Soldiers in that command who have passed through their score of battles, will tell you they never saw any thing like the fighting at Bentonsville. In the midst of the hottest of it, at perhaps five o'clock, Coggswell's brigade of the Twentieth Corps, arrived to fill the gap between the new formation of Carlin's line and that of Morgan. They moved forward, and the roar of musketry resounded along that line as it did along Morgan's. They seized the position, and gallantly held it. Meanwhile, the enemy on the left moved to the attack several times, but the repulse they had already received seemed to have dispirited them, and the terrible havoc of our massed artillery drove them back almost before they reached the fire of the infantry, who were burning to avenge the morning's disaster.” The National forces received, Sherman said, “six distinct assaults by the combined forces of Hoke, Hardee, and Cheatham, under the immediate command of General Johnston himself, without giving an inch of ground, ”