THE BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL.

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and Couch , with artillery from nearly the whole of his front, and soon after-ward pressed forward his columns of infantry, first on one and then on theother, or on both. As if moved by a reckless disregard of life, equal to thatdisplayed at Graines ’s Mill, with a determination to capture our army, ordestroy it by driving us into the river, regiment after regiment, and brigadeafter brigade, rushed at our batteries; but the artillery of both Morell andCouch mowed them down with shrapnel, grape, and canister; while ourinfantry, withhold-ing their fire untilthe enemy were with-in short range, scat-tered the remnantsof their columns,sometimes followingthem up and captur-ing prisoners andcolors. H

As column aftercolumn advanced,only to meet thesame disastrous re-pulse, the sight be-came one of the mostinteresting imagina-ble. The havoc madeby the rapidly burst-ing shells from gunsarranged so as to

sweep any position repulse oe the confederates on the slope of crew’s hill [see p. 416 ],

Captain William B. Weeden, in a letter datedMay 24th, 1885, says of the battle :

“ It was a fine afternoon, liot but tempered by a cool-ing breeze. The soldiers waited; patience, not courage,kept them steady. The ranks were full now; each knewthat in himself he might be a possible victor or a possi-ble victim at nightfall. Crew’s deserted house, morehospitable than its owner, had furnished a luxury sel-dom enjoyed on the field. Water, not warm in thecanteen, but iced in a delf pitcher, with glasses, wasliterally ‘handed round.’ Pickets and skirmishers hadkept us informed of the opposing formations and ofbatteries going into position. The sharp-shooters’ bulletsbegan to thicken. Action might begin at any moment,and between 2 and 3 o’clock it did begin. Out of thewoods, puffs of smoke from guns and nearer lightwreaths from their shells lent new colors to the green ofwoods and fields and the deep blue sky. The musketrycracked before it loudened into a roar, and whizzing bul-lets mingled with ragged exploding shells. The woodsswarmed with butternut coats and gray. These colorswere worn by a lively race of men and they stepped for-ward briskly, firing as they moved. The regimentalformations were plainly visible, with the colors flying.It was the onset of battle with the good order of a re-view. In this first heavy skirmish — the prelude of themain action — Magruder’s right made a determined at-

tack by way of the meadow to pierce Griffin’s line toturn Ames’s Battery and to break the solid advantagesof position held by the Union forces.

“ The brant of the blow fell upon Colonel McQuade’s14th New York . This was a gallant regiment which hadsuffered much in the rough work at Gaines’s Mill. TheConfederate charge was sudden and heavy. The NewYorkers began to give ground, and it looked for a mo-ment as if the disasters of Gaines's Mill might berepeated. But only for a moment. The men stiffened upto the color line, charged forward with a cheer, anddrove back the enemy. Weeden’s Rhode Island Batteryof three-inch rifled ordnance guns had lost three piecesat Gaines’s Mill. The remaining guns, under commandof Lieutenant Waterman, were stationed south and westof Crew’s, fronting left and rearward. It was the angleof our position, and so far w r cst that Tyler’s heavy gunsmistook it for the enemy and fired 4^-inch shells into it.One caused severe casualties. The battery was with-drawn from this dangerous range, and later in the after-noon, when the main action was raging, Waterman’sthree guns, with two of the same type under LieutenantPhillips of Massachusetts , relieved Kingsbury and Haz-litt’s regular batteries of Parrotts on Couch ’s right. Theservice here was admirable. Waterman with only halfa battery had a whole company of experienced gunners.When the ammunition gave out they were in turnrelieved by a fresh battery.” EDITORS.