The enemy clung to the protecting wood with tenacity, and the Rhode Island battery became so much endangered as to impel the commander of the second brigade to call for the assistance of the battalion of regulars. At this time news ran through the lines that Colonel Hunter was seriously wounded. Porter took command of his division; and, in reply to the urgent request of Colonel Burnside, detached the battalion of regulars to his assistance, followed shortly afterwards by the New Hampshire regiments. Shortly afterward the other corps of Porter’s brigade, and a regiment detached from Heintzelman’s division to the left, emerged from the timber, where some hasty disposition of skirmishers had been made at the head of the column, in which Colonel Slocum, of the Second Rhode Island regiment, distinguished himself for great activity.
The rattle of musketry and crash of round shot through the leaves and branches, had warned them when the action commenced, and the column moved forward before these preliminaries were completed, eager for a share in the fight.
The head of Porter’s brigade was immediately turned a little to the right, in order to gain time and room for deployment on the right of the second brigade. Griffin’s battery found its way through the timber to the fields beyond, followed promptly by the marines, while the Twenty-Seventh took direction more to the left, and the Fourteenth followed upon the trail of the battery—all moving up at a double-quick step. At this time General McDowell with his staff rode through the lines and was loudly cheered as they passed within six hundred feet of the enemy’s line.
The enemy appeared drawn up in a long line, extending along the Warrenton turnpike, from a house and haystack upon their extreme right, to a house beyond the left of the division. Behind that house there was a heavy masked battery, which, with three others along his line, on the heights beyond, covered the ground through which the troops were advancing with all sorts of projectiles. A grove, in front of Porter’s right wing, afforded it shelter and protection, while the underbrush along the road in the fences, screened to some extent his left wing.
Griffin advanced to within one thousand yards, and opened a deadly fire upon these batteries, which were soon silenced or driven away.
The right was rapidly developed by the marines, Twenty-Seventh, Fourteenth, and Eighth, with the cavalry in rear of the right; the enemy retreating in more precipitation than order as the line advanced. The second brigade (Burnside’s) was at this time attacking the enemy’s right with great vigor.
The rebels soon came flying from the woods toward the right, and the Twenty-Seventh completed their rout by charging directly upon their centre in face of a scorching fire, while the Fourteenth and Eighth moved down the turnpike to cut off the retiring foe, and to support the Twenty-Seventh, which had lost its gallant Colonel, but was standing the brunt of the action, though its ranks were terribly thinned in the dreadful fire. Now the resistance of the enemy’s left was so obstinate that the beaten right retired in safety.
The head of Heintzelman’s column at this moment appeared upon the field, and the Eleventh and Fifth Massachusetts regiments moved forward to support the centre, while staff officers could be seen galloping rapidly in every direction, endeavoring to rally the broken Eighth, but with little success.
The Fourteenth, though it had broken, was soon rallied in rear of Griffin’s battery, which took up a position further to the front and right, from which his fire was delivered with such precision and rapidity as to compel the batteries of the enemy to retire in consternation far behind the brow of the hill in front.
At this time Porter’s brigade occupied a line considerably in advance of that first occupied by the left wing of the rebels. The battery was pouring its withering fire into the batteries and columns of the enemy wherever they exposed themselves. The cavalry were engaged in feeling the left flank of the enemy’s position, in doing which some important captures were made, one by Sergeant Socks, of the Second Dragoons, of a General George Stewart, of Baltimore. The cavalry also did brave service.