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

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[540] true, as Stonewall Jackson had said of the Army of Northern Virginia, ‘We sometimes fail to drive the enemy from positions. They always fail to drive us.’ In that respect our army singularly resembled the famous ‘One-Horse Shay.’ We held together wonderfully until all our parts, worn out together, failed together at Appomattox. Naturally, as the attack had been on the largest possible scale, the repulse was unusually severe and bloody; and the roar of the battle, while it lasted, probably exceeded even that of the combats in the Wilderness, which Humphreys described as often approaching the sublime. It broke forth, mingled with vast cheering, in the stillness of early dawn, but it was no surprise. For over an hour the men in the trenches had been alert at hearing in front muffled commands and smothered movements. The Napoleon of Cabell's in the pit at the end of Kershaw's broken line, which had been supplied with ammunition the day before by passing it from hand to hand along the line, was to be withdrawn to the angle where the new horseshoe joined our old line, and the trench in front of its new position was abandoned. The necessary work was only finished at the approach of dawn, and, in whispers, the gunners and infantry supports rolled it back by hand, leaving the trench empty behind them. It was safely located at the embrasure prepared for it, enfilading the deserted trench, and double-shotted with canister, but a few minutes before the cheering enemy, who here had not 100 yards to advance through thin woods, swarmed over the parapet to find the trench deserted, into which they leaped, and to receive the double canister and the musketry and artillery of the new line as they paused wondering at our disappearance.

The sound of the battle reached Richmond, and men came out on the streets to listen to it. Some houses were prepared for an unusual influx of wounded, but few came. Richmond listened calmly, for it had confidence in the One-Horse Shay.

The brunt of the action lasted about an hour, though at isolated places attacks were renewed, or more or less distant fire was kept up until after noon. As a general thing, the assaults were checked at about 50 yards from our lines, but at two or three points leading officers were killed on or very near our parapets.