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Spotsylvania Continued
A GLIMPSE OF GENERAL EWELL. After waiting what I thought a long time, I sent out another man on the same errand, who returned, and said ammunition had been sent for and would soon arrive. I waited for it so very long that I grew anxious, and determined to hunt it up myself; rode to the rear and found that bullets were whistling over the quadrilateral, right and left. I inquired for General Early's headquarters, and was told that he seemed to be riding all over the field that day. [Editor's note: General Early commanded Hill's corps that day, and held both the right and left of Lee's line.] I then inquired for General Ewell's headquarters. Its general direction was pointed out to me; found it after considerable trouble, and saw that the enemy had found it before I had. Ewell was standing before a portable field table with writing material on it, and his staff a short distance in his front, and shells were falling fast and furious all around. General Ewell was wearing an artificial leg in the place of the natural one he lost near Sudley's Mills, and he had lately married a widow whom he was accustomed to introduce as "my wife, Mrs. Brown." He had become very nervous, and every time a shell exploded near him he would hop his good leg up and curse with the vehemence of an old trooper and the unction of a new church member. I told him of our great need of ammunition. He said he had heard from me two or three times that day and had sent me ammunition, and it would get there before I could. I briefly explained the situation to the general; told him that the enemy were in our front and rear.; that their rear fire swept the ditch between me and Colonel Terrill and this ditch was too shallow to afford protection to any one not lying flat on the bottom of it; that Evans' had withdrawn his two regiments from our right, and that my right flank was entirely exposed. RUNNING INTO THE ENEMY. He told General Long to go with me; view the situation and do whatever was necessary to protect our brigade. I guided General Long through the woods to about the spot where I first rode out of it. I pointed out the situation of our brigade. He said my right was thoroughly protected by our batteries, but I could not see any of our guns nor any of Gordon's men. I told him I would not be willing to guide him to our brigade. The trip would be too dangerous; that I supposed Ewell knew what enemy were in our rear, and would drive them back. I then galloped to my right. I suppose I rode in my' excitement too far to the front, as I came squarely upon a body of the enemy. I waived my hat to them and gave a "whoop." They responded with cheers. I then turned my horse to the left and rode rapidly to the rear. I had not gone far when a body of men fired on me and shot my home, but he managed to bear me to my brigade before he fell and died. Almost immediately afterwards, Sergeant Gibson, with a squad of men, came up bearing a number of large wooden cartridge boxes of fixed ammunition. My share of this much needed ammunition was quickly distributed, and Colonel Terrill's share left. I started to walk to Terrill's command, but a voice from the ditch stopped me with about the same warning that I had received from Terrill, and the additional information that he was driving the enemy back with his two guns; had plenty of ammunition and when he needed my assistance he would call for it. The balance of the ammunition was then distributed among my men. Some of my men caught a stray horse of unknown ownership, and saddled and bridled him for me. This horse I tied to the wheel of a gun-carriage immediately on my left flank, and the horse was killed before the day was over by the fire on our rear. A six-pounder cannon was standing naked on the line of the ditch, without limber or caison, and no ammunition could be found for serving it. Twice during the evening a member from my regiment was sent to the rear for information, and reported each time that the enemy were advancing on our rear. I went out to see for myself; could not see that they were moving towards us, but found that they had gotten much closer than at first; saw that something was stopping them, and making gaps in their ranks; the second time that I looked towards them their ranks seemed to waiver, and to fade away. "THE SULPHUROUS CANOPY." Very truly yours, J. C. GIBSON, Account of Dr. William W. Smith. The story as related by Dr. William W. Smith, of Ashland, Va., then a private of the 49th Virginia Infantry, now president of the Randolph-Macon College system: On the eighth and ninth our regiment, the 49th Virginia, was not in action, but was moved from point to point, and on the tenth we were in the third line, and though not called on to support the front, were under heavy shelling. On the afternoon of the eleventh we were marched vigorously to a new position on the rear of the left side of the salient, which was to be rechristened the next day as the "bloody angle." We stopped, worn and weary, in a plowed field, and in a few minutes this particular part of the regiment was fast asleep in a furrow, let come what might. About a half hour before day we were awakened, marched quietly to the front, and placed behind the front line of battle in the trenches. (I think Hayes's Louisiana brigade.) On the way we passed a place where the enemy had broken through our lines and had been driven out by a counter charge. It is said to have been done in the fight on the tenth. The front of our line was well sprinkled with the enemy's dead, and about a score were piled at one point in our trenches. WAITING FOR THE CHARGE. We lay thus expectant until just dawn, when on our right, perhaps some five or six hundred yards away, we heard the Yankee "Hussa! hussa! hussa!" and then a rattling fire of small arms, lasting but a quarter of an hour at most. "Why don't they come on ? they gave it up easy," was our thought, when, to our surprise, we saw our men running from the trenches in the salient on our right. The enemy had taken the works! Our first emotion was surprise and amazement that our troops had lost so easily; there had been no fight. TROUBLE AHEAD. Our next was alarm at the situation; for veterans as we were we could see the seriousness of the disaster. It seemed that a whole corps, massed on a division front, had broken our line right in the centre, and were now pouring into the position that would enfilade both sides, and with small advance take our forces in the rear and compel the retreat of Lee's army, and that, too, at day break, with all day to complete the disaster and turn the retreat into a rout. The situation produced alarm but not fear. It was a great emergency to be promptly and heroically met. Our officers were not wanting. In a few minutes our brigade was thrown almost to right angles to the breastworks we had been set to defend, and marching to the right, made, with Gordon's Georgians, who were on our right, the bar of an A across the angle. It was an hour of destiny. The thin line stood confronting the massing enemy in our trenches only some two hundred yards away; obscured they were, it is true, by the underbrush and in some cases by the contour of the land, but ready to push forward to the capture of the parked reserve artillery ammunition just behind us. GENERAL R. E. LEE APPEARS. General Lee's headquarters were but a short distance away, and a few minutes would decide whether the grand Army of Northern Virginia, which had sent so many Federal generals to defeat, would fall before this first strong attack of General Grant. A moment later I noticed a quiet officer ride in front of our line. He was a large man on an iron gray horse, and had come up without retinue, even, I think, without a single staff officer or orderly. It was when he turned face towards us and with a silent gesture of extended arm pointed towards the enemy we recognized our idolized Lee. Already the bullets were zipping past, aimed chiefly at the struggling remnant of Johnson's division, that had been overwhelmed in the trenches. What if one should kill Lee? "Get in front of him, keep the bullets off," was the instinctive feeling of each man. "LEE TO THE REAR." Just then from the right General J. B. Gordon came dashing down the line. At the sight of Lee he reined up his handsome bay so sharply as to throw him on his haunches. It was a picture never to be forgotten. "General Lee, this is no place for you. Go back, General; we will drive them back. These men are Virginians and they have never failed me; they will not fail me; will you boys?" Then rose the oft-quoted shout: "General Lee to the rear I Lee to the rear!" "Go back, General, we can't charge until you go back." "We will drive them back, General." Some one got hold of his bridle and back through the line of the 49th Regiment Lee was led. The whole scene was not fifty paces from where I stood, and stands out like a glorious picture to-day. "Forward!" cried Gordon, and the line stepped off with the steady tread of a dress-parade. There was no shout, no rebel yell, but, as I looked down the line, I saw the stern faces and set teeth of men who have undertaken to do a desperate deed, and do not intend to fail. LEE'S EYES UPON THEM. With the freedom of the volunteer, I said to those next me: "Pass it down the line, boys; General Lee is looking at us." "Aye, and depending upon us, too," and the silent line moved on with long, swift strides. In a few moments we marched down into the bottom, than rising, parted the undergrowth, and were upon them, packed thick as blackbirds in our trenches. A fearful volley wrought havoc and started those in advance to get back to their line. Those behind, seeing these returning, became alarmed. Without pausing to reload, we rushed upon them, so quickly, indeed, that we did not give them time to run. Many surrendered upon demand; some gave us the bayonet. With these we had a short, stern argument, using chiefly our clubbed guns. My gun being too short for such use and quite handy to load, I gave my stubborn opponent, who refused to surrender, the leaden contents at short range, and passed on after finding that he was beyond the need of assistance from me. As we rushed on, hundreds threw up their hands and said: "I surrender," but we could not afford to send men back from the charging line with prisoners, and would say: "Throw down your guns and go the rear." Many did so; many obliqued to the left and finally escaped and joined their comrades, but we passed on, driving the ruck before us. Presently I saw before our advancing line, to my left a fresh line of Yankees rise from the ground in perfect array. Our line, pressing through the underbrush and also through a swampy place, was disorganized, every man pressing forward for himself after the fleeing foe, and when it was confronted by this new force, my heart was in my mouth as I looked for their volley. But, strange to say, ours fired first, and it seemed to me that the enemy just laid down again, such tremendous slaughter was wrought. The force made no further fight and surrendered as we ran over them and finally established ourselves in the abattis, about two hundred yards in front of the enemy's trenches. This post we held until about 4 o'clock, being continually under fire, and firing ourselves until our ammunition was exhausted. My little gun became so foul that I could not press the breech lock into place. I had to stop in the midst of the battle and with my gun-screw take it to pieces and clean it. It was here that our loss was the heaviest. Late in the afternoon we could see the enemy forming a heavy line to retake the gap, and we were ordered to retire to the works we had recaptured. This we did without interruption, but found that our charge had left about two hundred yards of the trenches, in the apex of the angle on the left, unassailed, and these were now filled with Yanks. So we held part and they part of the same line of breastworks, a very uncomfortable cotenantcy. Nine times that night, until nearly 10 o'clock, they tried to get the whole, but we would not let them have it. Many times into that half acre of blood did General Lee send regiment after regiment, made up of organized cooks, released men from the guard houses, or even men who had been wounded, but who could still shoot. But this, too, was in vain. The enemy held the angle. The concentrated fire in this inferno cut down two trees, each as large as a man's body. At last Lee gave up the murderous attempt and drew a new line connecting his wings, leaving out the angle. The battle had raged from 4 A. M. to 10 P. M. WILLIAM W. SMITH, INCIDENTS. During the long-continued firing, while lying in the enemy's abattis, Lieutenant Kincheloe, of Company C, was wounded at my side by a shell which came apparently from our rear, and Private Embrey, the younger of two brothers in Company C, was killed just in front of me by a bullet through the head. At the request of the officers I went back to the second line, where we had killed so many of the enemy, and robbed their cartridge boxes of ammunition, which I brought to our line. I would not choose such a job again. I was again sent to the rear to find, if possible, our ammunition wagons and to get supplies of ammunition brought to the front. While hunting them our line was ordered to withdraw to the trenches. Not to be out of a job while waiting its return, I volunteered to assist in firing a three-inch rifle gun that was in our trench, the rest of the battery having been put out of action, and this piece remaining with a lieutenant and a squad of men without horses. It was the only piece of our artillery in sight, while the enemy, with what seemed about twenty guns, were shelling the region miscellaneously without definite target. The lieutenant and myself ran some two hundred yards to the caisons, which remained abandoned on the field, and brought our arms full of shells for the gun. Sighting carefully at one of the enemy's batteries we made a pretty fair shot with our first shell, and reloaded as quickly as possible for a second attempt. Before it could be made a hurtling volley of a dozen shells showed that the enemy was glad to get a target. Our second shell burst splendidly in the midst of a battery, and, elated by the shot, we loaded again. This shell, however, never left the gun, for before we could pull the lanyard one of the enemy's second dozen shells struck our gun on the mouth, breaking off about a foot and a half of the piece and ending my experience as an artillerist. My cousin, Lieutenant David Smith, after the battle told me the following incidents of the close fighting at the trenches: "One of our men having an empty gun, which he was in the act of reloading as he arrived at the trench, in an emergency found he had no time either to finish reloading or to club his gun, but felled his opponent by a vigorous swipe across the head with his handy ramrod. One of our officers ordered a Yankee just across the trench to surrender; whereupon our officer, not being a swordsman, leaped the breastworks, grabbed his man by the collar and proceeded to pummel him a la Jeffreys, until he gave in." My cousin himself wore a sword, which, being rather loose in the scabbard, had frequently given him trouble by falling out when the end was tipped by any accident. To prevent this worry he had tied the handle to one of the thills of the scabbard, thinking that he could easily remove the cord for the next dress parade. On this occasion, however, when he rushed up to the trench, a big Yankee crouched in the grass raised his gun right at his breast. Two or three vigorous jerks failed to extricate the sword. Neither stick nor stone was in sight to furnish a weapon for the emergency; and so with fierce and commanding look the lieutenant drew back his stalwart foot and thundered: "Throw down that gun or will kick you over;" an order which the private promptly obeyed. WILLIAM W. SMITH,
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