Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-04-28


knapsacks. Each company was almost
isolated from the other, and the line of
battle formed in the dusk of the evening
was as eccentric as the trail of serpent.
Federal and Confederate pickets occupied
the same thickets, but there was no firing.
A regiment attached to Sedgwick's corps
on the right, in moving into position, in
Che evening, ran over dozens of Confeder-
ates without knowing whom they wsre.-
"a midnight that great forest was at times
as still as death. Then it would seem to
throb and culver like grieved heart
Over on the plank and turnpike Lees
troops could be heard moving up, but the
sounds were softsned by distance, and the
echoes were swallowed up by the thickets.
To the right and left the Federals were
advancing, moving by flank or retreating,
as they closed up their lines. An hour af
ter midnight the frightened bark of a fox
or the note of some nigbt-bird disturbed
by the pickets were the only sounds which
broke the solemn stiffness of the great
wilderness.
Lee had ordered an attack at S O'Clock
in the morning. Grant had ordered an
attack at precisely the same hour. Thus
it Was that when Sedgwick marshaled his
lines on the right at daybreak and swept
forward, he had not advanced 400 feet
when he met the Confederates under Ew-
ell on the march to find him. And 50, too
when Hancock swept through the thick
cts on the left, he found Hills battle lines
of gray waiting his coming. A battle
usually opens with skrmishes and ma
neuvres and more or less artillery firing,
and the men have time to brace themselves
| for desperate work. But this battle open
ed with a sudden crash of musketry which
made the forest tremble. 1t began ON the
right and ran to the extreme left, dis
tance of seven miles. In six minutes
after the first gun was fired 100000 men
were engaged in the bloody strife. Here
and there cannon had secured position,
aud it's hoarse below was heard above the
awful din of the musketry; but the musket
and the bayenet were the only two weap
ons depended on by either commander
| Calvary could not map9uvre, artillery
was in the way, and ambulances had
their covers torn off by the jagged limbs,
or were mired in the swamps.
ON THE RIGHT
Lee had massed the weight of his army
on Grants right, and where sedgwick was
first checked was where he stood and
| tonight all day. Brigades and divisions
sursed forward over ground thick with
corpsss and slippery with blood, to be
driven back again by fire SO hot that the
green leaves on oak and pine were aflame
over the heads of the men who fought.
Bayonet charges we're made and repulsed,
and hundreds of men dubbed each other
| with tncir muskets and stabbed each 9TH
with knives. At no time during all that
long day, from the opening of the battle
to the shutting down at night, was there
pause in this struggle on the right
When regiments had been decimatsd they
fell back to let fresh regiments receive
their baptism of blood and wounds and
death. Men who were wounded before
SIX in the morning were lying there in the
thickets when the sun went down, some
struck four or five times.
There was at one point on the right a
cleared spot of about two acres in extent,
and a Federal battery which had been
dragged through the forest was placed in
position there about Z O'Clock in the mork
ing. In 10 minutes three of the guns were
silenced by the musketry fire, and charge
was made by the Confederates to capture
the whole. Here two regiments grappled
and fought antil 800 men incumbered the
ground. Again the battery opened, and
again it was charged, and when the Con-
federates retired the dead had to be cord
ed up to get them out of the way. Again
and again fresh artillerists were brought
up and fresh FIRE opened, and again and
again the Confedsrates charged and added
scores and hundreds to that awful pyramid
of dead. Grant had not advanced on his
right. Lee had not advanced on his left.
Where the dead fell in the gray OF morn
ing there was the battle line when night
shuddered az the sight and sounds.
ON THE LEFT.
There were hundreds of raw recruits in
Hancock's corpse-men who had never
seen skirmish They had made a terrific
narch and fought brisk battle tho day
previous; but when the bugles sounded the
advance III the morning shat corps did not
have hundred stragglers. The Confed-
rates under Hill were stretched across
Haucock's path, but in Is minutes from
the crack of the first musket he had walked
over them. They fell back to q new line;
but it was only to be driven back again.
Hill could not be routed; but he WAS
pressed back through thicket and forest,
until it seemed as if Lees right wing
would be crushed back on his centre.
Wadsworth was checked, but Hancock
swept forward like a great wave, captur
Ing colors and prisoners, nor was he
checked until his line of battle was within
musket shot of the Confederate wagon
trains. In three hours he had driven Hill
mile and a half. Time still furnished
proofs Of what hell On earth that great
wilderness was. Where one can find q
tree the size Of his body he can find score
Of scars. On the spot where Wadsworth
was killed, one may oday, in ten minutes /