The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-08-02
IN A SLAUGHTER-PEN.
HOLDING THE SALIENT AT SPOTT-
SYLYANIA.
The Assault OF Lees Army-Col Bea-
ver's Narrow Escape.
IF. A. Burr's Life of General Bcaver.I

Ddy nslc jltSC ddN Itil8 sS tiIt CitSl
| of the National advance broke on
the rebel works and flooded them.
The swift movement had been sue
cessful along the line in front OF
, General Brooke's brigade, whose
commander had sprung on the rebel
| works at one end of the line, covered
by the two brigades of the first di-
vision, just as he saw one of his col
onels leap on the works at the other
end. The first | knew" says a
. general staff officer, who was follow
ing the line of battle just in its rear,
was the prisoners boiling over on
me, and | had my hands full taking
care of them" Success had come
but the worst of the battle was still
in the future. General Barlow's di-
vision had struck full on its centre
a broad, hat V shaped salient,
and swept over it. The fiat open
clear space behind, turned on the
instant into Il seething cauldron Of
fighting men, was in the undisputed
possession of the National forces.
| Over 1900 men jammed in the mar
row space of a few acres swayed
hither and thither in the wild de-
lirium of success. For the first and
for the last time in the long wrestle
of the army Of the Potomac and the
Army of Northern Virginia, an in
trenched position, mounted with ar
tillery well chosen, well manned and
well armed, had been taken by an
assault in column. 1t remained to-
hold it. in the swarmine, strug-
Cling mass of men and officers, lines
lost, regiments confused, brigades
confounded, cool heads at work
putting the command into order for
the inevitable counter assault. The
headlong rush of assault swept part
of the attacking force against the
inner works of the enemy half a
mile distant, and elswhere the Ma
tional forces We're held in hand, and
brought into line Just in the rear of
the works they had carried
THE HOT CORNER.
The salient carried by the Nation
al forces had been placed where it
was by the Confederate engineers.
because at this point the slope which
ran down to the creek between the
naked ridge on which Hancock
formed his men, and the ground
rising toward Spottsylvania, dipped
into low swale, which lower sank
into narrow ravine. In the day
long struggle that followed, this de-
preston, slight, mere wrinkle on
contour map, played the part COW
cred way, and made it possible for
the Union forces to hold the point
they had won. Lee was in immi-
nent danger. The Second Corps
had cut his army in two. The Joint
in his harness had been found by
the keen. highly tempered blade
with which Grant had been search /
ing his armor for fortnight. Ii as
vigorous an advance had been made /
by Warren on the right, and Gen /
eral Burnside on the left at the head /
of the Ninth Corps. it is difficult to /
see how Lees army could have been /
saved. Cut in two at the middle,
attacked at each end, it must have
been rolled a disordered, defeated
mass toward Richmond. The pre-
cious hours passed, but the advance
which might have turned a brilliant
assault into a victory never came
1t had been part of the original plan
of attack that the Ninth Corps was
10 advance at the same time that
the Second did. in the darkness of
gray dawn. AT his headquarters on
the bare unprotected ridge where he
was forming his tired men at mid
night, full under the fire Of over for
ty field-pieces, half of which were in
his hands by daylight, Hancock
chafed away hour by hour as the i
ticking field telegraph at his elbow
brought one dilatory message after /
another from the headquarters of /
the Ninth Corps. Before he gave
the final order for assault, with the !
dark sky on his left slowly changing {
as day came, General Hancock sent
Gen. Burnside word that he should
advance without him. n
How long the Second Corps held /
the salient alone against the assault /,
Lee was making upon the point or
whose recapture the safety of his
army hung, is still disputed, as is :
the share which the Sixth Corps :
played in its defense. The contract ,
ed limits of the salient became a ,
great slaughter-pen, swept by one ,
continuous blaze of musketry. [
There was no room TO bring in guns,
and no space to use them. The Sec /:
ond Corps stretched first in an irreg. I
ular line across the space it had ,
won-Mott, Birney. Gibbon, Barlow I
from right to left the One Hundred '
and ty-eighth, with its brigade,
pushed sharply to the left. Volley I
by volley. at point blank, range, beat '
back the rebel advance. Inch by inch
the line fell back, and it lay on the t
works it had won, when at six {
o'clock a. N. the Sixth Corps brought
it its first aid. Great trees were cut 2
off like reeds by the musketry fire |
which swept the works back and
forth like canister. The lines were J
reversed, and the National forces
on the outer edge of the works they L
had early won. Ammunition soon d
ran low, and all day the pack-mules 4
with ammunition cases slung over h
their backs, were passing up the ra- 4
vine, and across the dip of the swale C
the salient had been intended to a
By the same shelter E
men went to the rear. and supports i
md reliefs came to the front. The
presence of this natural covered way
made possible communication with
he very centre Of the battle, whose :,
lot fire the war did not see equalled. .
Without it it is hard to see how the =
difficulty of supplying an advanced T
inc through twenty hours of con- =
inuous firing could have been sur "
.
TERRIBLE STRUGGLE.
"The angle" saws Brigadier Gen