The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-02
CHANCELLORSVILLE
An Incident OF q Great Battle
OF the Civil War.
An Aide de- Camp of General Pleasonton
Placed Between Two Fires.

Major Clifford Thompson, aide-de-
camp on General Plcasonton's staff, in
the Century, gives the following account
of the fight at Hazel Grove: General
Pleasonton rode from gun to gun, direct
ing the gunners to ain low, not to get ex-
cited, to make every shot tell; the staff
officers, catching their cue from him,
did the same, and while at first there had
been considerable excitement and appre-
hension among us, it soon quoted down,
and every thought and action was di-
rected to getting the best service out of
those guns that they were capable of
rendering. Recovering from the disor-
der into which Kcenan's charge had
thrown them, the enemy could be seen
forming line of battle in the edge of
woods now in our front. They were
scarcely two hundred yards distant; yet
such was the gloom that they could not
be clearly distinguished. General Pleas
onton was about to give the order to fire,
when n sergeant ut one of the guns said:
General, aren't those our troops2 I
sec our colors in the linel' This was
true, for where he pointed our coloro
could be sccn-trophies picked up on the
field. General Plcasonton turned to me
and said:
"MIr. Thomson, ride out there and
see who those people are.'
"For myself, l was not ut oil curious
about those people, being perfectly
willing to wait till they introduced them
selves. Riding out between our guns, I
galloped to within thirty or forty yards
of them; all along the line they cried out
to me; Come IN we're friendsr It was
quite dark and I could not make out
their uniforms, but I could see three of
Oil flags. M these caused me to hest
tate; I came to q halt, pcering into the
darkness to make sure, when a bullet
whistled by me, and then came sthc rebel
YELL The line charged up the hill to-
wards our guns, and 1 led it'll Lying
down upon my horses neck, I gave him
the spur, and the yells of the .Johnnies'
behind, further stimulated him, so that
We got over the ground pretty lively.
But with report of the first shot fired Mt
me, Gen. P~leasonton had opened fire, and
those % guns belched forth destruction
at a fearful rapid rate. Although lying
down on my horse, I kept an eye Oh the
guns, and guided my horse between the
flashes, and in less time than it takes to
tell, | was on the safe side of them. 1t
was load and fire Mt will for some
minutes; the enemy was moved down in
heaps; they could make no Roadway
against such a cyclone, and ran back
down the slope to, the cover of the
woods. But still the canister was poured
into them, and a second attempt to
charge the guns failed. Soon Sickles
corps move from its advanced position
and ~interposed between us and the
woods; parties sent out over the field
which had been swept by our guns found
the deacfand dying lying in heaps. Old
artillery officers have informed me that
they never before heard such rapid firing
as occurred Mt that engagement; the
roar was continuous one, and the exc
cution terrific. After it had ceased T
rode up to Gen. Pleasonton and said:
"'General, those people out there are
rebelsr
"There was n grave twinkle in his
eye as he held out his hand and replied:
"Thomson, I never expected to see
you again; I thought if they didn't kill
you should, but that was no time to
stop for INT man,
II should have agreed with him more
cordially If that one man had been some
body else. 80 When President
Line In visited the army a day or two
after this fight, General Pleasonton
CHANGED to call Mt Hooker's headquarters.
when that officer said:
Mr.. President, this is General Pleas
.onton, who saved the army of the
Potomac the other night
''Thc President Acknowledged the
service in his usual grateful manner.
Only inspiration, or the instinct of a
natural soldier, could have enabled
Pleasonton to accomplish so much in so
short a time with so small a force. The
fight at Hazel Grove was one of those
sharp and decisive actions pregnant
with great results.
A SimuIe r~rOceedIup