230

TWO DAYS OF BATTLE AT SEVEN PINES.

yards in front of the Federal picket-line. Bnt the other regiments of thisbrigade came up soon after. At 1 o’clock the signal-guns were tired, andHill’s division at once moved forward.

The foregoing details in reference to the movements of these three divisionscould not well he omitted, because General Johnston “asserts” that the divis-ions of Hill and Longstreet were in position early enough “ to be ready tocommence operations by 8 A. m.,” and that General Longstreet “ waited fromhour to hour for General Huger’s division.” Having thus seen D. H. Hill’sdivision start out alone at 1 p. m. to attack the Federals, it will be well toglance at the preparations made to receive him.

Whilst Hill’s troops were coming into position, their movements had beenreported to General Silas Casey , who commanded the Federal first line ofdefense. He at once ordered one regiment to go forward about eight hundredyards on the Williamsburg road, and support the picket-line; the workingparties were called in, batteries harnessed up, and the troops formed, ready totake their assigned places. In a short time the Confederate signal-guns wereheard, and the division was ordered into position to resist attack. The campsof these troops were immediately in rear of the earth-works. Palmer’s brigadeon the left, Wessells’s in the center, and Naglee’s on the right. Two regimentsof Naglee’s brigade were detached, supporting the picket-line, as already stated.About one-half of this division was placed in the rifle-pits on the right andleft of the redoubt; the others were put in front, with orders to contest theadvance of the Confederates against the first abatis, and Spratt’s batterywas placed four hundred yards in advance of the earth-works, on the northside of the road, closely supported by three regiments of Naglee’s brigade andone of Palmer’s.

In moving to attack, Rodes’s brigade was on the south side of the road,supported by Rains ; Garland’s brigade, on the north side of the road, wassupported by G. B. Anderson. All were in the dense and marshy woods,wading through water occasionally from two to three feet deep, the wholeway obstructed by undergrowth, which often prevented commanders fromseeing more than one company of their men at a time. General Hill hadtaken the precaution to order every man to wear in action a white strip ofcloth around his hat as a battle-badge. Garland moved a few minutes beforeRodes was ready. His skirmishers soon struck the Federal picket-line, andthe shock of Garland’s brigade fell upon the small regiment of raw troopsthat had been ordered into the woods to support the Federal pickets. Thatregiment fell back to the abatis just in time to prevent being enveloped anddestroyed. And it was soon driven through the abatis in great disorder.It had lost about one-fourth its numbers in a few minutes, and was broken topieces in crossing the abatis under close and deadly fire. This regimentcould not again be rallied. General Keyes says that it “ retreated, joined bya great many sick. The numbers, as they passed down the road as strag-glers, conveyed an exaggerated idea of surprise and defeat.”

The field-hospitals of the division were in the camps at the front; there wasa large number of sick; some men of the working parties did not resume