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chambers and cellars of the houses, was not only novel but a great strain upon the moral and physical courage.
The most dangerous and trying part of the action was that the enemy could fire a volley at such close range without being seen.
The fierce work went on,—from street to street, from house to house, from yard to yard, amid smoke and blaze, the crash of shot, the whirr of shell, the shrieks of women and the moans of children.
Men sorely wounded, fought on and added wound to wound.
Officers and men fell fast.
Company B lost ten men out of thirty in less than five minutes, and other companies suffered similarly.
In one of the houses were captured five men, who less than two minutes before had, with others, crossed the street and given the men of the Nineteenth a volley at close range.
Companies B, D, E and K of the Nineteenth were posted along Caroline street, and it took about an hour and a half of of the severest fighting before they secured the north side of the street.
A few minutes later when the left was furiously attacked by the enemy, who had concentrated at this point for the purpose of regaining the avenue leading down to the pontoon bridge, they were forced down Fauquier street for some distance.
The men of Company K turned into a corner lot and took shelter behind a fence.
There they received a volley which killed Private Penniman and wounded another.
This fire was returned, but the enemy proved too strong and too well posted so that the men were driven back to the river.
As the men of the Nineteenth fell back toward the river, the Twentieth Massachusetts marched up Fauquier street. Upon reaching Caroline street, the latter regiment wheeled to the right, but before the full line had reached the street, the enemy from their snug retreats poured such a deadly fire upon them that they were forced to retire with great loss.
Over the completed bridge rushed the divisions of Hancock, French and Howard, the old Second Corps, followed by the columns of the glorious Ninth.
As the men of the Nineteenth Massachusetts lay upon the bank of the river they recognized and received the plaudits of the heroes of other days.
Palfrey, with the Twentieth Massachusetts, Farnham, with the First
Salem Press. Co., Salem, Ma., 1906.
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