212 Norra Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

Our regiment was not actually engaged at Savage Station,
Fraser’s Farm, or any of the subsequent battles, till Malvern
Hill, fought on Wednesday, 1 July. M eClellan beaten and
harried on every hand, saw that escape would be difficult,
probably impossible, unless Lee’s pursuit could be checked.
For this purpose on Tuesday night, 30 June, and early the
next morning, he hurried to Malvern Hill his shattered com-
mands. If the hand of Omnipotence, molding plastic nature
at will, had contrived a fastness in which a beaten and dis-
pirited army might take refuge and grow strong in a sense
of security, it need do no more than fashion another Malvern
Hill. Here with the James river to his back, and his fleet of
gunboats on his left flank, he felt that he might meet even
Lee’s dauntless, though shattered divisions. Here, frowning
tier above frowning tier, in implacements made by nature’s
own hand, his 300 pieces of splendid artillery were concen-
trated. Hither his still formidable army, now as at the be-
ginning, far outnumbering the Confederates, was drawn back
and skilfully massed in time to strengthen, with partial en-
trenchments, the points that were least strong. A clearing
of 500 to 900 yards between the Federal position and the
woods and Swamp in their front, gave a full view of their as-
sailants.

Against this inland Gibraltar, the Southern troops were
hurled. A simultaneous attack along the whole line would
have been desperate. Attacks at intervals, at the different
points by different commands without concert of action, were
hopeless. Yet such, by an unfortunate concatenation of
errors, was the mode of attack. Late on that sultry summer
afternoon our division (D. H. Hill’s) struggled through an
almost impassable swamp and opened the battle with the first
direct assault. Our brigade (Garland’s) was in the first
line, and advanced through the broadest part of the belt of
cleared ground, which had been broken by the plow on the
side next to the enemy. Though only Whiting’s small divis-
ion was to the left of us, our attack was directed against the
Federal centre. Here we fought Couch’s men which we had

routed at Seven Pines and when here, as there, hard pressed,
Kearney came to their aid.

TweEntTy-THIRD REGIMENT. 218

But the task now assigned us was beyond the power of
mortal men. From the first step in the open, the fire of that
huge voleanic amphitheatre and of the gun boats on the river
was focused on us, much as the ribs of a fan meet at the han-
dle. Yet onward we swept; the line, when shattered and
hurled back in places, reforming and pushing with grim de-
termination, doggedly forward, breaking in part the first
line of the enemy. No field ever more fully tested the fibre
of Anglo-Saxon manhood, and on no field has it ever acquitted
itself better. Not till they had striven, unaided for more
than an hour against McClellan’s whole army and 2,000 had
fallen, did they yield to the inevitable and were swept back-
ward by the moving wall of lead and iron.

As at Seven Pines, we will let foeman pay tribute to their
matchless ardor. A French officer, the Comte de Paris, who
was on McClellan’s staff, saw it all and said the following:

“Hill advanced alone against the Federal position. * =
He had therefore before him Morell’s right, Couch’s division,
reinforced by Caldwell’s Brigade * * and fronting the
left of Kearney. As soon as they (Hill’s troops) passed be-
yond the edge of the forest, they were received by a fire from
all the batteries at once, some posted on the hills, others
ranged midway close to the Federal infantry. The latter
joined its musketry fire to the cannonade when Hill’s first
line had come within range, and threw it back in disorder on
its reserves.

While it was reforming, new battalions marched up to the
assault in their turn. The remembrance of Cold Harbor
doubles the energies of Hill’s soldiers. They try to pierce
the line, sometimes at one point, sometimes at another, charg-
ing Kearney’s left first and Couch’s right * * and af-
terwards throwing themselves upon the left of Couch’s divis-
ion. But here also after nearly reaching the Federal posi-
tion, they are repulsed. The conflict is carried on with great
fierceness on both sides, and for a moment it seems that the
Confederates are at last to penetrate the very centre of their
adversaries and of the formidable artillery which was now
dealing destruction in their ranks. But Sumner, who com-
mands on the right, detaches Sickles’ and Meagher’s brigades