TWO DAYS OF BATTLE AT SENEN PINES.
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“We were at this time in the woods extending from the edge of the slashings up the woodsand on the left [south] of the camping-ground of General Casey’s division, completely command-ing his old camp and the earth-works with our rifles.”
In the meantime the head of Jameson’s brigade had reached the field. Tworegiments were sent in advance of Seven Pines, in the abatis and woods onthe south side of the road, supporting Berry’s brigade; one regiment wasposted in the earth-works of the secondline, and the other regiment of Jame-son’s brigade had not yet come up.
General Kearny says:
“ It was perhaps near 6 o’clock, when our cen-ter and right [the forces in the earth-works atSeven Pines, and those that had been sent toresist the Confederates advancing in rear of theNine-mile road], defended by troops of theother divisions, with all their willingness, couldno longer resist the enemy’s right central flankattacks, pushed on with determined disciplineand with the impulsion of numerous concen-trated masses. Once broken, our troops fledincontinently, and a dense body of the enemy,pursuing rapidly, yet in order, occupied theWilliamsburg road, . . . and, penetrating deepinto the woods on either side, soon interposedbetween my division and my line of retreat.”
He says that he “ checked the enemy in his in-tent of cutting us off against the White OakSwamp. This enabled the advanced regiments ... to retire by a remaining wood path,known to our scouts (the Saw-mill road), until they once more arrived at and remanned the im-pregnable position [the third line of defense].”
Besides Kearny’s troops on the south side of the Williamsburg road, alarge portion of those in the earth-works at Seven Pines retreated by the Saw-mill road; but some of the regiments from the earth-works, and others thathad been contesting Colonel Jenkins’s advance along the Nine-mile road, fellback on the Williamsburg road. The latter were re-formed, and again contestedColonel Jenkins’s advance. It does not appear that any of D. H. Hill’s divis-ion, except the regiment that was with Colonel Jenkins, succeeded in gettingbeyond the second abatis; but it is very certain that the effective fire, acrossthat abatis, from Hill’s musketry and artillery, materially aided Colonel Jenkinsin “bursting across the Williamsburg road.”
Having given the Federal account of the manner in which the two SouthCarolina regiments and the 27th Georgia forced their way to and crossedthe Nine-mile road a little south of Fair Oaks, it is now proposed to giveextracts from Colonel Jenkins’s report, showing the advance of these threeregiments to and across the Williamsburg road, and then along the latterroad to a point within about one mile of the Federal third line of defense.Colonel Jenkins says:
“ I advanced my regiment through the abatis under a very heavy fire. ... I instructedColonel Bratton [6th South Carolina ] to keep his left touching my right; and the enemy’s
BRIGADIER-GENERAL HENRY M. NAGLEE.FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.