THE BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL.
411
McQuade, with a section of Captain W. B. Weeden’s Battery C, 1st RhodeIsland Artillery, both watching the Richmond road and the valley and pro-tecting our left. On their right, under cover of a narrow strip of woods,skirting the Quaker road, were the brigades of Martindale and Butterfield,while in front of these, facing north, was Griffin’s brigade. All were support-ing batteries of Morell’s division, commanded by Captain Weeden and others,under the general supervision of Griffin, a brave and skilled artillery officer. J
About 3 o’clock on Monday the enemy was seen approaching along theRiver road, and Warren and Hunt made all necessary dispositions to receivethem. About 4 o’clock the enemy advanced and opened fire from their artil-lery upon Warren and Sykes and on the extreme left of Morell, causing a fewcasualties in Morell’s division. In return for this intrusion the concentratedrapid fire of the artillery was opened upon them, soon smashing one batteryto pieces, silencing another, and driving back their infantry and cavalry inrapid retreat, much to the satisfaction of thousands of men watching theresult. The enemy left behind in possession of Warren a few prisoners, twoguns and six caissons, the horses of which had been killed. The battery whichhad disturbed Morell was also silenced by this fire of our artillery. On thisoccasion the gun-boats in the James [see p. 268] made apparent their welcomepresence and gave good support by bringing their heavy guns to bear uponthe enemy. Though their fire caused a few casualties among our men, andinflicted but little, if any, injury upon the enemy, their large shells, burstingamid the enemy’s troops far beyond the attacking force, carried great moralinfluence with them, and naturally tended, in addition to the effect of ourartillery, to prevent any renewed attempt to cross the open valley on ourleft. This attacking force formed a small part of Wise’s brigade of Holmes’sdivision. They were all raw troops, which accounts for their apparentlydemoralized retreat. This affair is known as the action of Turkey Bridgeor Malvern Cliff. J,
Our forces lay on their arms during the night, in substantially the positionsI have described, patiently awaiting the attack expected on the following day.
J These batteries as located on Tuesday, the dayof the battle, were those of Edwards, Livingston,Kingsbury, Ames, part of Weeden’s under Water-man, part of Allen’s under Hyde, and Bramhall’s.Other batteries as they arrived were posted inreserve south of Crew’s Hill, and were used to re-place batteries whose ammunition was exhausted,or were thrown forward into action to strengthenthe line.
The different commands as soon as they wereposted prepared to pass the night [June 30th] insecuring the rest greatly needed both by man andbeast. Later on June 30th Couch ’s division ofKeyes’s corps came up and took its place, extend-ing Morell’s line to the right of the Quaker road.The greater part of the supply trains of the armyand of the reserve artillery passed safely beyondTurkey Creek through the commands thus posted,the movement only ceasing about 4 o’clock in theafternoon.—F. J. P.
Some idea may be formed from the following
incident of how indifferent to noises or uncon-scious of sudden alarms one may become whenasleep, under the sense of perfect security or fromthe effect of fatigue. For several days I had beenable to secure but little sleep, other than such as Icould catch on horseback, or while resting for afew minutes. During this heavy artillery firing I■was asleep in the Malvern house. Although theguns were within one hundred yards of me, andthe windows and doors were wide open, I wasgreatly surprised some two hours afterward tolearn that the engagement had taken place. Forweeks I had slept with senses awake to the soundof distant cannon, and even of a musket-shot, andwould be instantly aroused by either. But on thisoccasion I had gone to sleep free from care, feelingconfident that however strong an attack might bemade, the result would be the repulse of the enemywithout much damage to us. My staff, as much inneed of rest as myself, sympathized with me andlet me sleep.—F. J. P.