198

THE ELEVENTH CORPS AT CHANCELLORS CILLE.

This was the fire that Stehiwehr and I heard shortly after our return fromBarlow. Somebody’s guns thundered away for a few short minutes, and thencame the fitful rattle of musketry; and before I could again get into thesaddle there arose the ceaseless roar of the terrible storm.

I sent out my chief-of-staff, Colonel Asmussen, who was the first officer tomount,— “ The firing is in front of Devens, go and see if all is in order on theextreme right.” He instantly turned and galloped away. I mounted and setoff for a prominent place in rear of Scliurz’s line, so as to change front to thenorth-west of every brigade south-east of the point of attack, if the attackshould extend beyond Devens’s right flank; for it was divined at once thatthe enemy was now west of him. I could see numbers of our men—not thefew stragglers that always fly like chaff at the first breeze, but scores ofthem—rushing into the opening, some with arms and some without, runningor falling before they got behind the cover of Devens’s reserves, and beforeGeneral Sehurz’s waiting masses could deploy or charge. The noise and thesmoke filled the air with excitement, and to add to it Dieckmann’s guns andcaissons, with battery men scattered, rolled and tumbled like runaway wag-ons and carts in a thronged city. The guns and the masses of the right bri-gade struck the second line of Devens before McLean’s front had given way;and, more quickly than it could be told, with all the fury of the wildest hail-storm, everything, every sort of organization that lay in the path of the madcurrent of panic-stricken men,]) had to give way and bo broken into fragments.

My own horse seemed to catch the fury; he sprang — he rose high on hishind legs and fell over, throwing me to the ground. My aide-de-camp, Des-sauer, was struck by a shot and killed, and for a few moments I was as help-less as any of the men who were speeding without arms to the rear. Butfaithful orderlies helped me to remount. Scliurz was still doing all he couldto face regiments about and send them to Devens’s northern flank to help thefew who still held firm. Devens, already badly wounded, and several officerswere doing similar work. I rode quickly to the reserve batteries. A staff-officer of General Hooker, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Dickinson, AssistantAdjutant-General, joined me there; my own staff gathered around me. 1was eager to fill the trenches that Barlow would have held. Busclibeck’ssecond line was ordered to change front there. His men kept their ranks,but at first they appeared slow. Would they never get there!

Dickinson said, “ Oh, General, see those men coming from that hill way offto the right, and there’s the enemy after them. Fire, oh, fire at them; youmay stop the flight! ”

“No, Colonel,” I said, “ I will never fire on my own men ! ”

“ Tlio enemy attacked now from the front and roar,and then of course my bravo hoys were obliged to fa* 1haelc, tho G4th New York and tlio right wing of 0*°lfiUd Pennsylvania forcing their way hack through theenemy’s skirmishers in their roar. . . . Retreating 1expected surely to rally my brigade behind our secondlino, formed by tile Third Division, hut I did not find th esecond line; it was abandoned before we reached it.”

Von OHlsa’s brigade lost 133 killed and woundedout of an effective of 1400 men.— Editors.

j) Colonel von Gilsa’s report of the crisis is asfollows:

”... A patrol of the 4r>th New York regimentreported masses of the enemy, in an open held oppositemy line. I reported tills fact at once to the divisioncommander, and at the same moment my skirmisherswere driven in by overwhelming forces of the onoiny.The whole lino at once becumo engaged furiously, andmy brigade stood bravely, ilred three times, and Htooilstill until after they had outflnnked me on my right.