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(perfect concert the cannon and muskets were dis-charged upon the hapless hand. It must havekeen a surprise for the surprisers, though fortu-nately for them we hadheen too hasty, and, as theywere moving hy the flank along our front, only thehead of their column received the fire. But thisrepulse did not end it; the survivors closed up andtried it again. Then they divided into squads andmoved on the flanks, keeping up the hy-play untilthere were none left. Daylight soon gave us per-fect aim, and their game was useless.
This stunning blow to the assailants in front ofHaskell occurred just as another column of Confed-erates, that had filed into the works at Stedman,started on a rapid conquest along the trenches to-ward Fort McG-ilvery. We could see from Haskellthe flashing of rifles as these men moved on and onthrough the camps of the parapet guards. Anothercolumn started also from Stedman along the breast-works linking our two forts. This division aimedto take Haskell in the right rear. At the very out-set, this last movement met with a momentarycheck, for it fell upon two concealed batteries, XI
artillery. He placed one piece in the right rearangle, where the embrasure admitted the workingof it with an oblique as well as a direct range.About the same time some officers and men of the100th Pennsylvania and 3d Maryland regiments,who previous to the attack had occupied the breast-works adjoining, came in and were posted on therear works by Captain George Brennan, of Company
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I a~si^eu. irn.vi 6r r ,Acihis
Stvdman from Golquitts Sau'ent.
FROM SKETCHES MADE IN 1886.
On the morning of March 26th, General Gordon ’s column (advancing from Colquitt’s salient) moved over the levelground shown on the left, in the lower picture. Fort Stedman was located in front of the clump of trees.
a nd XII, and the 59th and 29th Massachusetts regiments, stationed near and now under arms.
Meanwhile there was a lull around Haskell; butA was of short duration, for it was now so light thatthe enemy could observe from his main line everyPoint on the scene of conflict. He opened on Has-kell with Stedman’s guns, and also with his ownth front. Our little garrison divided, one halfguarding the front parapet, the remainder rallyinga long the right wall to meet the attack threatenedky the division coming against it from Stedman.
this juncture, Captain Christian Woerner, oftke 3d New Jersey Battery, who had been on dutya t the headquarters of the artillery brigade, in therea r, came into the fort and took charge of the
\ Lieutenant J. H. Stevenson, of Company K, lOOtliPennsylvania, writes under date of December 2d, 1887:
1 A little after the alarm was given, all the companies onright and left were taken to the rear as skirmishers, andspread my company out in a thin line along our breast-y^rka. Here we stood waiting for the enemy. When theu llets began to come in from the rear I moved my companythe purpose of being ready to face to the rear. I( >rmed at right angles with the breastworks, but soon. 0,111 that this was no place for the men and took themllto Fort Haskell. My men were posted along the nortli-eastParapet. Only a few could be of service in firing, and the°thers loaded the muskets.”
C. Stevenson, of tlie same regiment, writes that lie
M, who commanded in that quarter. \ The ven-turesome Confederate column had borne down allopposition, captured batteries XI and XII, anddriven all the infantry from the trenches, and,with closed-up ranks, came bounding along. ^ Ata point thirty rods from us the ground was cut bya ravine, and from there it rose in a gentle grade upto the fort. Woerner’s one angle gun and about50 muskets were all we could summon to repelthis column, and there were probably an even 60cannon and 1000 muskets at Stedman and on themain Confederate line concentrating their fire up-on Haskell to cover this charge, i The advancingtroops reserved their fire. Our thin line mountedthe banquettes — the wounded and sick men
was in action in the nortli-east angle, and was tempo-rarily disabled hy the enemy’s fire.—G. L. K.
'fe Among the prisoners taken hy this column was ourbrigade commander, Colonel McLauglilen (the propercolonel of the 57th Massachusetts ). After the repulseof the column on the west front of Fort Haskell, ColonelMcLauglilen reached the fort, and, learning the situa-tion, started toward Fort Stedman, attempting to rallythe infantry in the trenches on the way. He was cap-tured near Fort Stedman, where he arrived almostalone.—G. L. K.
J In an artillery duel shortly before this we countedtwenty-four mortar bombs in the air at once with path-way directly over the fort.— G. L. K.