‘noite te SONORAN i EO aa aa ca

 

 

 

30 Norra Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

He was Dr. Caldwell, the Surgeon, and informed me that it
was Colonel Fisher’s regiment that had gone in. I expressed
to him my regret that I had not known it, that I might have
spoken to the Colonel and other officers. I, waited anxiously
the result. The enemy were still pressing on; this battery
and others were incessantly throwing their shot far to our
rear, while the musketry fire on our side was slack.

It ought to be stated, that as the enemy had turned our
left flank with the larger part of his active fighting force
early in the day, as fast as our regiments could be gotten up
they went in, and the collision was accompanied by heavy
musketry discharges on both sides. As our troops were, how-
ever, very greatly outnumbered by the masses of the enemy,
and outflanked, they were forced back with much loss, and
there would be a slackening of the musketry fire. The en-
emy thus, by overlapping our left, was able to make a steady
advance, and was then getting in the rear of our center, or
rather might soon have been there.

Within fifteen minutes or less after Fisher’s regiment
passed out of view, suddenly the crash of musketry was
louder than it had been at any time during the day. That
battery suddenly become silent. It did not fire another gun
that day. The heavy musketry fire continued for more than
half an hour and gradually become fainter. At lehgth there
was a dead pause for some moments. Believing the battle
was over, I took out my watch. It was then precisely 4
o'clock. There was no other musketry firing that day, till
late in the evening near Centreville.

I will now briefly state what had occurred. Colonel Fisher
moved his regiment by the flank into the pines. Immedi-
ately in front of them, and on his right as he marched ob-
liquely towards the left of our line, there was an open field.
In it, about sixty yards from the woods, Rickett’s Battery
was stationed. From it, towards the woods, the ground
slightly rose, so that he was obliged to elevate his guns a lit-
tle, that his shot might pass over the ridge at the border of the
field. Outside of the field the ground descended into the
wood. Colonel Fisher at the head of his regiment passed
just inside the wood, below the crest of the ridge, along

Tue Barrie or Manassas. 31

ground which was rising a little. Thus he did not see the
battery until he, with some companies, had rather passed. it.
Captain Isaac Avery’s company was just opposite the bat-
tery. Finding themselves in this dangerous proximity, his
company and others near them fired suddenly into the bat-
tery, only sixty yards distant. This fire killed most of the
cannoneers as well as their horses. The men ran down on
them, and finished the survivors with their muskets and
bowie knives. Immediately after this, Colonel Fisher,
having passed over the battery, received a ball in the brain
and fell dead about thirty yards in the rear of the battery
they had taken. Captain Isaac Avery stated to me that
while he was sitting for a moment on one of the captured
pieces, he saw Colonel Fisher, who had moved forward to re-
connoitre seemingly, but was waving his rifle above his head
triumphantly. After his death, the regiment was obliged to
abandon the guns, not by the enemy’s fire, but by that of our
own men. a, .

There was a regiment they thought from Alabama, on
their left, but about two hundred yards in their rear, which
continued to fire on them. It was this fire that killed young
Mangum and several others. Many think it probable that
Colonel Fisher himself was thus killed. As his regiment
had gotten so far in front, and was.on ground so lately oecu-
pied by the enemy in heavy force, the mistake was made.
The regiment was thus obliged to abandon the battery, but
it was never used, or ever retaken by the enemy. I saw Lieu-
tenant Douglas Ramsey lying dead among the guns at the
close of the fight, while the Captain (Rickett), wounded, was
carried off a prisoner by our men.

I can vouch for the accuracy of the above statements,
partly from what I saw, and also chiefly from conversations,
which I had on that day and the succeeding one, with officers
and privates well known to me. The official reports of Bar-
ry, the Chief of the Federal artillery, and of General Heint-
zelman, both confirm the truth of these statements. They
said that this battery of Rickett’s was pushed forward far in
advance, and that a regiment on our side come up within
sixty or seventy yards of it, and by a well directed fire disa-