202 Norra Caroiina Troops, 1861-65.

thus lay there, the men of my command continued to reload
and discharge their pieces into the thick, dark mass, The
officers fired their repeaters, while such as had none occa-
sionally borrowed muskets from privates and discharged them
at particular individuals. As the survivors lay still to avoid
attracting particular attention, it. was soon impossible to dis-
tinguish the living from the dead. After some fifteen or
twenty rounds had been fired into the prostrate mass, I
directed the firing to cease. Upon. this occurring, a portion
of the column, not I think, more than one-tenth, arose and
fled to the rear; many of these, however, were shot down as
they attempted to escape.

On the right of my line, where the Sixty-first Regiment
was stationed, the enemy made a vigorous attack in line of
battle, but as the ground was more open, they were not able
to approach nearer than either eighty or one hundred yards,
but left large numbers of dead on that part of the field. Un-
der cover of thick undergrowth they approached somewhat
nearer the Thirty-first but were repulsed with much slaughter.
After the enemy had thus been driven entirely away, the men
cheered all along our lines. Before the smoke had been en-
tirely dissipated, however, there was a sudden attack on my
left, under the following circumstances: When General

—’s Brigade on my left abandoned the field, in the
beginning of the engagement, a large force of the enemy
passed quietly to the rear of my left. This they did without
observation on account of the thickness of the woods there.
We had been too. constantly engaged to have time to ascer-
tain that the troops on our left had, more than an hour pre-
vious, left the field. The enemy had full time, therefore, to
make their arrangements to attack us both on the left flank
and in our rear. Favored by the thick bushes and smoke,
they had gotten within fifty yards of. the rear and left of
the Eighth Regiment, and suddenly, just as our men had
ceased to cheer, they opened on them a heavy fire at short
range against their backs and from the left simultaneously.
Though under these circumstances surprised, the men of the
Eighth faced about, and, with the left of the Fifty-first, en-
deavored to keep up the contest. The odds in such a strug-

Sreconp Cotp Harpor. 203

gle were too great, and our men fell so fast that, seeing it
impossible for them longer to maintain the contest there, I
directed Lieutenant-Colonel Murchison, who, though flushed
and excited by such a disaster, showed the greatest self-pos-
session and courage, to withdraw the survivors so as to form
a new line of battle perpendicular to the first one, extending
from the right of the Fifty-first to our rear. In this posi-
tion the survivors of the Eighth and Fifty-first held their
ground for some time against the greatly superior forces of
the enemy. I then ordered the Thirty-first to file out of the
intrenchment and form with them. With this force we
charged the enemy, and drove them back so as to enable us to
reoccupy our original line for a few moments only; because
the enemy being posted along the branch, and also on the
hill, rendered it impossible for my small force to resist them,
and it was again driven back. While I was endeavoring to
reform the line, Captain Henderson, of the Eighth, said. to
me, ‘Colonel Murchison is dead.” .I replied, “I hope not,
for I spoke to him but a few minutes since.” In fact, as I
soon learned, just as he had gotten back into the trench, which
he had with his regiment occupied during the day, he re-
ceived a ball in the head which terminated his life. Finding
that no enemy was immediately in our front then, but only a
heavy artillery fire kept up, I ordered Colonel Radcliffe to
file his regiment out of the trenches so as to aid us in the next
‘attack. As I afterwards learned, he himself, with the larger
part of his command, did not obey this order and stayed in
the trench. Being busied with forming the line under the
heavy fire of the enemy, I observed soon, however, the delay
of this regiment in getting into position, and going up to its
left, I ordered them to file out to the rear, so as to form the
right of our new line of battle. Lieutenant-Colonel Devane
took out a portion of the regiment, and I thus supposed they
were all following. While the line was being formed, Colo-
nel Zachary, of General Colquitt’s Brigade, with five com-
panies of the Twenty-seventh Georgia Regiment, came up
and charged with us... The struggle had continued for sev-
eral hours, and it was now after sunset. We drove the en-

emy back again and reoceupied the left of our original line.