William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac

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[138] having been gotten well in hand under the personal direction of General Johnston, moved forward, opening a heavy fusilade upon the line. They made several determined charges, but were each time repulsed with great loss by the steady fire of the infantry and the excellent practice of the batteries.¹ After sustaining the enemy's fire for a considerable time, General Sumner ordered five regiments² to make a charge with the bayonet into the woods occupied by the enemy. This operation was handsomely executed, and resulted in driving back the Confederates in confusion. Thus, when all was lost, Sumner's soldierly promptitude saved the day, as Moreau, flying to the assistance of Napoleon when hard pressed by the Austrians in Italy, chained victory to the standards of the French. ‘O Moreau!’ exclaimed that illustrious war-minister Carnot, on hearing of this; ‘oh, my dear Fabius, how great you were in that circumstance! how superior to the wretched rivalries of generals, which so often cause the best-laid enterprises to miscarry!’³ The brave old Sumner now sleeps in a soldier's grave; but that one act of heroic duty must embalm his memory in the hearts of his countrymen.

In this bloody encounter the Confederates lost nearly seven thousand men, and the Union army upwards of five thousand. But a severer loss befell the Confederates than is expressed even in this heavy aggregate; for the able chief of the Army of Northern Virginia was struck down with a severe hurt. The command, for the time being, devolved on General G. W. Smith; but the failure to make good the purpose of the attack, the heavy losses already suffered, and the disabling of