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50 Norru CaroLtina Troops, 1861-’65.

The night of the 11th was dark and drizzly. We sat with
guns in hand the entire night, with a man to each company
whose business it was to see that the men kept awake. We
were so near the enemy’s lines that I heard them knocking
open cracker boxes and heard them call to the men to come
and get their rations (giving “a” the long sound). ~ We could
hear, during the night, the sound of axes. They were evi-
dently engaged in clearing away the pine bushes near the toe
of the horse shoe to unmask their batteries. Just as the light
was beginning to show on the morning of the 12th, we heard
a sharp rattle of musketry away to the right, and suddenly
the enemy came rushing over the line of works occupied by
Edward Johnson’s Division. They did not come in front of
our brigade. The Forty-fifth Regiment occupied the posi-
tion at the extreme right of the brigade next to Johnson’s
Division. It seemed to me then, as I remember now, that
they captured almost the entire division down to the extreme
left, and up to our right. I saw very few men go to the rear.
We instantly sprang to our guns at the first firing. Our
brave brigade commander came running up the line from
near the center of the brigade to our regiment and observed
that the enemy on our immediate right was confused in gath-
ering up prisoners. He called the regiment to attention;
gave the command, “About face,” and, as I remember, moved
the regiment at a right wheel, thus turning the regiment
upon a pivot on the left company, and in this movement
threw our backs to the enemy. While we were executing
this movement, we were ordered to fire to the rear, which we
did as rapidly as we could. When we had reached a point at
almost right angles with the works, we were halted, ordered
to about face, where we stood for a minute or two firing into
the enemy’s lines enfilading them. We were shortly com-
manded to right face and double-quick, the brigade following
us. This threw us partly across the lines between the two
caulks of the horse shoe, perhaps half the brigade occupy-
ing that position. In the meantime the battalion of artil-
lery, down the line to our left, drew their guns from the
breastworks and threw them into line about fifty yards to our
rear, in a position several feet higher than the position we

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Forty-Firra REGIMENT. 51

occupied. We dropped upon our knees and opened fire upon
the enemy, every man loading and firing as rapidly as possi-
ble. Immediately the artillery in our rear opened fire over
our heads. For a little while the rush of canister and shrap-
nel above us seemed dangerous, but the conflict was on and
in a short time we became accustomed to it. By the time
the prisoners of Johnson’s Division had been disposed of, the
enemy in unbroken lines reaching back as far as we could
see, came sweeping on in our front, but this combined fire of
infantry and artillery was more than human flesh could stand
and it was impossible for them to reach our line. The first
men that came to our assistance was that brigade of North
Carolinians commanded by the peerless Ramseur. This
brigade always seemed to be in the right place at the right
time. It came up and formed on our right, as I remember,
in an open field, lay down for a moment, but soon, at the
command of its leader, sprang up and dashed forward into
the horse shoe. For a moment it seemed to me our brigade
ceased firing and held its breath as these men went forward,
apparently into the very jaws of death. They were soon en-
veloped in smoke, which the heavy atmosphere of a misty
morning caused to linger over the field. Now, from this
time until dark I know nothing of what took place, except that
which occurred in my immediate neighborhood. Without
moving at times for hours, we fired into the advancing
columns of the enemy who were trying to carry our position,
while Ramseur’s Brigade, and doubtless many other brigades,
were fighting on our right. We made during the day during
the little intervals between the enemy’s assaults, a little
temporary protection composed of fence rails, poles and
earth, behind which we sat on our knees and fired. We went
in with sixty rounds of cartridges each. This supply of
ammunition was replenished from time to time during the
day. How many rounds were fired no man knew.

The pine saplings standing at intervals in the field in front
of us and along on the sides of the old breastworks of John-
son’s Division, were torn and shattered by minie balls. The
enemy would take shelter sometimes behind the captured
works, which formed an acute angle with the line we oceupied