196
Longstreet, however, ordered up reinforcements, and soon had a section ofPelham’s battery, and the three fresh brigades of Wilcox, Pickett, and A. P.Hill on the ground, chiving Hooker back, with the loss of all his cannon, andheavy casualties. During his desperate engagement, Hooker reported hissituation to Sumner, and Kearny was promptly ordered up with his division,while Heintzelman, the proper commander of the Third Corps, was sent to thespot to take charge. [See “ Opposing Forces,” p. 200.]
A comrade in Hooker’s division gave me an account of his experiencesabout as follows: “Marching over the muddy road late iu the afternoon,
we found our farther advance pre-vented by a force which had precededus, and we halted in the mud by theroadside just as it began to rain. About5 o’clock we resumed our march bycrossing over to the Hampton road,and did not halt till 11 in the evening,when we lay down in our blankets,bedraggled, wet, and tired, chewinghard-tack and the cud of reflection,the tenor of which was, ‘ Why did wecome for a soldier ? ’ Before daylightwe were on the march, plodding in therain through the mire. By daybreakwe came out on the edge of the dense woods in front of Fort Magruder. Themain fort was a strong earth-work with a bastioned front and a wide ditch. Infront of this muddy-looking heap of dirt was a level plain, sprinkled plentifullywith smaller earth-works; while between us and the level plain the denseforest, for a distance of a quarter of a mile, had been felled, thus forming alabyrinth of tangled abatis difficult to penetrate. A mile away lay the vil-lage of Williamsburg.
“We were soon sent out as skirmishers, with orders to advance as near theenemy’s rifle-pits as possible. They immediately opened fire npon us withheavy guns from the fort, while from their rifle-pits came a hum of bulletsand crackle of musketry. Their heavy shot came crashing among the tangledabatis of fallen timber, and plowed up the dirt in our front, rebounding andtearing through the branches of the woods in our rear. The constanthissing of the bullets, with their sharp ping or bizz whispering aroundand sometimes into us, gave me a sickening feeling and a cold perspiration.I felt weak around my knees — a sort of faintness and lack of strength in thejoints of my legs, as if they would sink from under me. These symptomsdid not decrease when several of my comrades were hit. The little rifle-pitsin our front fairly blazed with musketry, and the continuous snap, snap,crack, crack was murderous. Seeing I was not killed at once, in spite of allthe noise, my knees recovered from their unpleasant limpness, and my mindgradually regained its balance and composure. I never afterward felt thesedisturbing influences to the same degree.
A TEMPTING BREASTWORK.
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