ON THE CONFEDERATE RIGHT AT GAINES’S MILL, j
BY E. M. LAW, MAJOR-GENERAL, C. S. A.
B y 5 o’clock on tie 27th of June the battle ofGaines’s Mill was in full progress all alongthe line. Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill ’s men wereattacking in the most determined manner, butwere met with a courage as obstinate as theirown by the Federals who held the works. Aftereach bloody repulse the Confederates only waitedlong enough to re-form their shattered lines or tobring up their supports, when they would againreturn to the assault. Besides the terrific fire infront, a battery of heavy guns on the south side ofthe Chickahominy was in full play upon theirright flank. There was no opportunity for ma-noeuvring or flank attacks, as was the case with D.II. Hill on our extreme left. The enemy was di-rectly in front, and he could only be reached inthat direction. If he could not be driven out beforenight it would be equivalent to a Confederate dis-aster, and would involve the failure of GeneralLee’s whole plan for the relief of Richmond . . . .It was a critical moment for the Confederates, asvictory, which involved the relief or the loss oftheir capital, hung wavering in the balance. Nightseemed about to close the account against them,as the sun was now setting upon their gallant, butso far fruitless efforts.
While matters were in this condition Whiting’sdivision, after crossing with much difficulty thewooded and marshy ground below Gaines’s Mill,arrived in rear of that portion of the line held bythe remnants of A. P. Hill ’s division. When Whit-ing advanced to the attack a thin and irregularline of General Hill’s troops were keeping up thefight, but, already badly cut up, could effect noth-ing, and were gradually wasting away under theheavy fire from the Federal lines. From the cen-ter of the division to the Chickahominy swamp onthe right the ground was open ; on the left werethick woods. The right brigade (Law’s) advancedin the open ground, the left (Hood’s) through thewoods.
As we moved forward to the firing we could seethe straggling Confederate line tying behind agentle ridge that ran across the field parallel to theFederal position. We passed one Confederatebattery in the edge of the field badly cut to piecesand silent. Indeed, there was no Confederate ar-tillery then in action on that part of the field.The Federal batteries in front were in full play.The fringe of woods along the Federal line wasshrouded in smoke, and seemed fairly to vomitforth a leaden and iron hail. General Whitingrode along his line and ordered that there shouldbe no halt when we reached the slight crest occu-pied by the few Confederate troops in our front,but that the charge should begin at that point indouble-quick time, with trailed arms and withoutfiring. Had these orders not been strictly obeyedthe assault would have been a failure. No troops
could have stood long under the withering stormof lead and iron that beat into their faces as theybecame fully exposed to view from the Federallines. As it was, in the very few moments it tookthem to pass over the slope and down the hill tothe ravine, a thousand men were killed or wounded.
Law’s brigade advanced to the attack in twolines, the 11th Mississippi regiment (Colonel Lid-dell) and the 4th Alabama (Lieutenant-ColonelMcLemore) forming the first line, and the 2d Mis-sissippi (Colonel Stone) and the Otli North Caro-lina (Colonel Avery) the second. Hood had asimilar formation on our left, but just as we cameunder fire, and before reaching the slope where thecharge began, General Hood passed rapidly acrossmy rear at the head of the 4th Texas regiment,closely followed by the 18th Georgia, both of hisbrigade. They came up on my right, extendingour line in that direction. The 1st and 5tli Texas regiments and the Hampton Legion of the samebrigade remained on the left in the woods. Pass-ing over the scattering line of Confederates on theridge in front, the whole division “ broke into atrot ” down the slope toward the Federal works.Men fell like leaves in an autumn wind, the Fed-eral artillery tore gaps in the ranks at everystep, the ground in rear of the advancing columnwas strewn thickly with the dead and wounded;not a gun was fired in reply; there was no confu-sion, and not a step faltered as the two gray linesswept silently and swiftly on ; the pace becamemore rapid every moment; when the men werewithin thirty yards of the ravine, and could see thedesperate nature of the work in hand, a wild yellanswered the roar of Federal musketry, and theyrushed for the works. The Confederates werewithin ten paces of them when the Federals in thefront line broke cover, and, leavingtheir log breast-works, swarmed up the hill in their rear, carryingaway their second line with them in their rout.Then we had our “ innings.” As the blue masssurged up the hill in our front, the Confederatefire was poured into it with terrible effect. Thetarget was a large one, the range short, and scarcelya shot fired into that living mass could fail of itserrand. The debt of blood contracted but a fewmoments before was paid, and with interest.
Firing as they advanced, the Confederates leapedinto the ravine, climbed out on the other side, andover the lines of breastworks, reaching the crest ofthe hill beyond with such rapidity as to capture allof the Federal artillery (fourteen pieces) at thatpoint. We had now reached the high plateau inrear of the center of General Porter’s position,his line having been completely cut in two, andthus rendered no longer tenable. From the flanksof the great gap where Whiting’s division hadtorn through, the Federal lines gave way in bothdirections. R. H. Anderson’s brigade, till then
l This description of the fighting in front of Morell’s line is from an extended paper on “ The Fight for Richmondin 1862,” which appeared in “The Southern Bivouac” for April, 1887 .—Editors.
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