76 Norta Carotina Troops, 186]—’65.

lar to it. As the first regiment got opposite to the break in
our lines it made a wheel to the right and “went in.” ‘The
next regiment, marching straight on, as soon as it cleared the
left of the regiment preceding it, likewise wheeled:to the
right and took its place in line, and so on in succession. That
is, we were marching north, and thus were successively
thrown into line of battle facing east. As these regiments
came successively into line they struck the Federal lines
which were advancing; the crash was deafening. The sound
of infantry firing at short distance can be likened to nothing
so much as the dropping of a shower of hail-stones on an enor-
mous tin roof. My regiment wheeled to the right about 150
yards north (and west) of the Dunkard church. In the wheel
we passed a large barn, which is still standing, and entered
the “West Woods.” Being a mounted officer, I had a full
view; our men soon drove the Federals back to the eastern
edge of these woods, where the enemy halted to receive us.
The West Woods had already been twice fought over that
morning; the dead and wounded lay thicker than I ever seen
on a battlefield since. On the eastern edge of these woods
the lines of battle came close together and the shock was ter-
rific; here Captain Walter Bryson, of our regiment, was
- killed, along with many others in the brigade. All the
mounted officers in the division instantly dismounted, turn-
ing their horses loose to gallop to the rear. It being the first
time I had been so suddenly thrown in contact with a line of
battle, and not noticing, in the smoke and uproar, that the
others had dismounted, I thought it my duty to stick to my
horse ; in another moment, when the smoke would have lifted
(so the Federal line of battle, lying down fifty yards off,
could have seen me) I should have been taken for a general
officer and would have been swept out of my saddle by a hun-
dred bullets. A kind-hearted veteran close by peremptorily
pulled me off my horse. At that instant a minie ball, whist-
ling over the just emptied saddle, struck the back of my left
hand which was still clinging to the pommel, leaving a slight
scar which LT still carry as a memento. The Federal line
soon fell back. We then charged in pursuit as far as the post
and rail fence at the turnpike. It was Gorman’s Brigade,

 

SHARPSBURG (OR ANTIETAM). 77

Sedgwick’s Division, of Sumner’s Corps our brigade was
fighting. This was composed of troops from Massachusetts,
New York and Minnesota, and from their returns they left
750 killed and wounded by our fire; this was about 10 a. m.
A terrific shelling by the enemy followed, which was kept up
for many hours, with occasional brief intermissions, caused
probably by the necessity of letting the pieces cool. The
shelling was terrible, but owing to protection from the slope
of the hill, and there being a limestone ledge somewhat shel-
tering our line, the loss from the artillery was small.

In the brief intermission, after the Federal infantry had
fallen back and before the artillery opened, a ery for help was
heard. Lieutenant (later Captain) Sanford G. Howie and
myself going out in front of our line, found the Lieutenant-
Colonel of a Massachusetts regiment—Francis Winthrop Pal-
frey—tlying on the ground wounded, and brought ‘him and
others into our lines. With some reluctance he surrendered
his very handsome sword and pistol and was sent to the rear.
The sword bore an inscription that it had been presented to
him by the town of Concord, Mass. He remarked at the
time, he wished them preserved, and sure enough, after the
war he wrote for them, and they were restored; he was ex-
changed and became subsequently General Palfrey. He has
published a volume, “Antietam and Fredericksburg.”

There was another intermission in the shelling about 12
o’clock, when we were charged by the Second Massachusetts
and Thirteenth New Jersey of Gordon’s Brigade, who ad-
vanced as far as the post and rail fence at the Hagerstown
turnpike, about 100 yards in our front, but were broken there
and driven back, leaving many dead and wounded. There
was another intermission about 2 o’clock probably. Word
was then brought us that we were’to advance. It was then

- that Stonewall Jackson came along our lines; his appearance

has been so often described that I will only say that I was
reminded of what the Federal prisoners had said two days
before at Harper’s Ferry, when he rode down among them
from his post on Bolivar Heights: “My! boys, he ain’t
much on looks, but if we had had him, we wouldn’t have been
in this fix.” Stonewall remarked to Colonel Ransom, as he