The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-07-11

of bayonet, full $4,000 men from Long.
} streets and Hills corps, came rushing
! against our lines. The Third Corps stood
nrm for while, but afterward gave way
beneath the weight of the attacking column
and on they came ten-fold more furious
than before.
Sickies fell severely wounded in the leg
and his corps was literally cut to pieces
The Second Corps was thrown in the breach
from the right and the Fifth from the left
The Second suffered fearfulIy. Hancock
received painful flesh wound in the thigh
put refused to be led from the field while
the engagement continued. Here, too
Gen. Gibbon was wounded in the shoul-
oer. The terrible charge and fierce battle
ragged with undated fury. The Fifth
Corps, including the Regulars and the
pennsylvania Reserves, struggled in the
hercuiean labor with the determination Of
men porn to conquer in battle.
The aid of the 18th Corps, from the ex-
treme right was called for, and division
was ordered up, and about the same time
SedgWlck came up with the 9th Corps, at
ter march Of thirty-six consecutive hours.
Inc men We're footsore, many without any
SHOES on their feet, hungry and weary, and
ready TO drop on the road from exhaustion.
/ When, however, the situation flashed into
the minds of these weary soldiers, the fire
ana zeal for which this Corps is so justly
celebrated, was kindled anew in their brave
hearts. They awaited but the order, and
that lmpatiently,to be led against the enc
my. Ihe order was given, and, like men
1resh from camp, they went down upon the
hanghty foe like an avalanche. The rebel
column staggered and reeled, and then fell
back IN confusion, leaving their dead lying
against and across each other in this field
Of slaughter.
The sun went down. Suddenly as the
western hills eclipsed his RAYS the battle
| carnage ceased on the left.
Equally sudden, fierce charge dashed
against the weakened lines of the right
wing. The suddenness of the attack and
the weight OF EwelPs column gave some
advantage to the enemy. Reinforcements
however, were promptly up and the enc
my checked in his advance.
The rebel general was determined to 90
through the right and gain control of the
valley roads. The failure to turn the left.
and the snatching the victory from their
clutches, hurting their broken columns
| back defeated and confused on the left.
made their case more desperate, and the at
tack on Slocum was furious even to mad
ness. The LIST and 9th Corps came up
promptly to the support of the 18th Corps.
From dark until 81 o'clock the battle ragged
with unabated fury. The lines moved to
and fro, each in turn advancing and falling
back. At this hour of the night the enemy
made his final charge on the left of the
right wing, held by Gen. Geary's division,
He was repulsed with terrible slaughter,
and refused to renew the attack. At 10 o.
clock the battle ceased, and during the
night all was quiet.
Ewell had been largely reinforced, and
held position of some advantage Gen.
Meade determined that he should be dis
lodged from the place, and as a matter of
personal honor, assigned the task to Gen.
Slocum, who had previously occupied the
same position, but was compelled to aban-
don it because Of the reinforcements sent
to the support of the left wing, overwhelm-
ed by Longstreet's and A. P. Hilrs divi-
sionS.
| Gen. Slocum accordingly made prepara-
tons for the work assigned. His own corps
was in strong position, and determined to
regain the ground lost the night before.
| A division from the 9th Corps was pos
ted on the right of the 18th, thus forming
the extreme outpost of the right wing
| The 9TH Corps was sent over as a reserve,
| and Gen. Wadsworths division of the LIST
Corps, took position to strengthen How
ards right where it joined Slocum's left.
| These were the preliminaries. The men
| well knew what sort of work they would
be called upon to do in the morning, and
nerved their hearts and cheered each other
against the hour Of trial by fire.
On Friday morning at o clock, Slocum's
line opened terrific fire on Ewelfs men.
The enemy responded in a most furious
charge, for which mode of fighting they are
justly celebrated. The fighting on Thurs
day on the left where Longstreet and Hill
fought with most terrible desperation for
three hours, and the subsequent battle on
the right by Ewell, were regarded by the
Oldest officers in the army as the most OBJ
stinate and deadly contest of the war. Of
| fcerS and men lay dead in fearful num-
| bers. But the enemy's charge in response
to Slocum's fire seemed ten times more
| furious.
| With fiendish yell and such contempt of
death during six full hours, they hurled
| their solid masses against the well-defend
ed lines. The National troops stood like a
wall Of fire, whose flaming tongues en-
wrapped in death whatever came near,
whose foundation were firm as if one with
the primal rock on which it rested.
| Nothing during the war has equalled
| this six hours carnage. In front of Grangs
position were more rebel dead than the
number of the entire list of casualties in
| the 18th corps. The dead were lying liter
ally in heaps, many hit in all manner of
| degrees, from clean shot.through the head
| to bodies torn to pieces by exploding shells.
| AT 10 o'clock Siocum had repulsed and
driven back the enemy at every point and
reoccupied his original position. The bat
| tie ceased at II o'clock, and there was a
pause like to the stiffness of death that
rested for three hours on the living and
| dead.
No matter how long pressed by the enc
my the Union troops felt even in the front
rifle pits that. the Commanding General
was conversant with their situation, and
would not suffer them to be overwhelmed.
The officers would say to the men, and the
men TO each other, "Meade will send you
! help-iust hold on little longer"
Nor were they disappointed. If the Gen
eral in command was possessed with de-
gree of calm deliberation truly wonderful,
and seemed intuitively to know what was
necessary to be done and to- be endowed
with superior genius in the distribution
| and handling of his forces.
AT II o'clock on Friday afternoon Lee
opened line of artillery fire from about
one hundred guns, concentrated against
Cemetery Hill and the position along the
centre held by the Second and part OF the
First Corps.
| The firing was responded to by all the
batteries on the hill, and then ensued three
hours of cannonading unsurpassed in in
cessant fierceness by any artillery battle
on this continent. The sight and sound
were awfuily sublime. The hills trembled
III