The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-12-15
CHARLOTTESVILLE.
Continued from first page.)

checked by our guns, and the rebels with
drew. Several guns and caissons were re-
covered from the woods where they fought
u.s.
Capt Martin, who commanded the 9th n.
battery under Pleasonton, reports as fol-
lows: The scene before me was one of indie
scribable confusion. The Eleventh Corps
was panic-stricken, and the pack trains, am
balances, artillery carriages, ETC., belonging
thereto were rushing to and fro, many of
the carriages
WITHOUT DRIVERS OR TRANSFERS.
Not more than $50 yards from the battery
there ran line of fence, and behind this
appeared line of infantry. The fire Of the
enemy was very vigorous and we'll main
tanned. / trust that Of my battery was
equally So"
Gen. Sickles reports Of these events thus ::
Time was everything. The fugitives of the
| Eleventh Corps swarmed from the woods,
and swept fraptically over the cleared fields
in which my artillery was parked. Theexult-
ing enemy at their heels mingled yells with
| their voleys, and in the confusion which fol-
| lowed it seemed as if cannon and caissons,
dragons, cannoneers, and infantry could
never be disentangled from the mass in which
they were suddenly thrown. Fortunately
there was only one obvious outlet for those
panic-stricken hordes after rushing over and
between our guns. and this was through
rayine crossed in two or three places by the
| beadwaters of SCOTS Run. This was soon
made impossible by the reckless crowd
checking up the way. A few minutes WAS
enough to restore comparative order aud get
our artillery in position.
The enemy showing himself on the
plain, Pleasonton met the shock at short
range with the well-directed fire of % pieces
double shotted with canister. The heads of
the columns We're swept away to the woods,
from which they opened furious but in
effectual fire of musketry. Twice they at
tempted a flank movement, but the first was
checked by our guns and the second, the
most formidable, was baffled by the advance
of Whipple and Birney, who were coming
up rapidly, but in perfect order, and forming
in lines of brigades in rear of the artillery
and on the TANKS. My position was now
secure in the adequate infantry support
which had arrived; the loud cheers Of our
men as twilight closed the combat vainly
challenged the enemy to renew the encoun-
ter
Pleasonton, in his entertaining article
published in the Century in 1888 quarter
of century after the event, reiterates the
statements of his early report, and enlarges
them. He states that Lieut.. Crosby, with
his battery of the 4th U. S., was placed on
the right Of Martins battery. Not gun of
this battery nor Of the Eleventh Corps was
at Hazel Grove, but
WERE AT THIS TINE AT FAIRVIEW, A
MILE AWAY.
He estimates the attacking force of the
infantry to be 5000 muskets, and that his
artillery fire was effective because he applied
TO it that principle of dynamcs in which
the angle of incidence is equal to the angle
of reflection. The discharge fairly swept
Jackson's men from the earth He poured
in the canister for about 90 minutes, and
the affair was over" He also enlarges upon
the stampede at Hazel Grove of the Eleventh
Corps. and says that beef cattle. ambu-
lances, mules, artillery wagons and horses
became stuck in the mud, and others COM
ing Oh crushed them down so that when the
fight was over the pile of debris in that
marsh was many feet high" This statement
is utterly untrue and extremely unjust.
None of the debris, was formed by the Eley-
enth Corps, for their line of retreat was
mile or more directly north.
Pleasonton also says the Eleventh Corps
was encamped in the woods 800 yards dis
tant, whereas the nearest of the left flank
of the Eleventh Corps was fully 900 yards
and the right, under Won elisa, was more
than 5000 yards distant by the nearest
paths.
Lieut. Thompson, the Aid whom Pleason-
ton sent to the front to reconnoiter, in 1866
wrote that one man fired at him as he |
peered into the darkness to find out who |
were in front OF him; and how he turned, |
leading the rebel charge, and how he lodged |
the discharges of the Federal artillery, form /
q very entertaining note in the Scribner |
series. He also states that the enemy
were moved down in heaps, that the roar
of the artillery was continuous and the
execution terrific" etc.
Doubleday in his work on ChancelIors-
vile and Gettysburg, one of the Scribner |
series of Campaigns of the Civil War"
published 20 years after and regarded as
semi-olficial relates the story of keenan,
and his charge as follows: He states that
when Peasonton arrived at Hazel Grove,
he found all hurrying furiously to the
rear" There was but one way to delay
jackson, some force must be sacrificed, and
Pleasont0n ordered Maj. Peter Keenan,, COM
the Sth Pa. Cav, to charge the
10000 men in front with, his 400 Keenan,
saw in moment that if he threw his little
force into that seething mass of infantry,
HORSES AND MEN WOULD GO DOWN ON ALL
SIDES,
and few would be left to tell the tale A
sad smile lit mp his noble countenance as he
said, General, ! will do it, Thus, at "a
years of age, he laid down his life, literally
impaled on the bayonets of the enemy,
saving the army frou eaptura o,d b;s