Ordering Colonel Henagan forward to meet them with the right of his command, I threw forward the Second South Carolina regiment on the left of the road and deployed and pushed forward Brigadier-General Humphreys with his brigade, also, on the right of the road. This formation was made successfully and in good order under the fire of the enemy, who had so far penetrated into the interval between Henagan and the road as to almost enfilade the Second South Carolina, which was holding the left of the road, and some batteries which were there stationed. Humphreys was pushed forward as soon as he got into position, and made for a time steady progress.
In the meantime General Bryan's brigade coming up, was ordered into position to Henagan's right. That officer, in obedience to orders, had pushed forward and driven the enemy in his front for some distance through the dense thicket which covered the country to the right of the plank road; but they being heavily reinforced, forced him back to the line which Humphreys had by this time reached. Here the enemy held my three brigades so obstinately that I placed myself at the head of the troops and led in person a charge of the whole command, which drove the enemy to and beyond their original line and occupied their temporary field works some half mile or more in advance. The lines being rectified, and Field's division and Wofford's brigade having arrived, a movement was organized to attack the enemy in flank from our right, while we continued to hold the enemy in front, who was at intervals bearing down upon our lines, but always without any success. This movement, concealed from view by the dense wood, was eminently successful, and the enemy was routed and driven pell-mell as far as the Brock road, and pursued by General Wofford to some distance across the plank road, where he halted within a few hundred yards of the Germanna road. Returning with General Wofford up the plank road, and learning the condition of things in front, we met the lieutenant-general commanding, coming to the front almost within musket range of the Brock road. Exchanging hasty congratulations upon the success of the morning, the lieutenant-general rapidly planned and directed an attack to be made by Brigadier-General Jenkins and myself upon the position of the enemy upon the Brock road before he could recover from his disaster. The order to me was to break their line and push all to the right of the road toward Fredericksburg. Jenkins' brigade was put in motion in the plank road, my division in the woods to the right. I rode with General Jenkins at the head of his command, arranging with him the details of our combined attack. We had not advanced as far as the position still held by Wofford's brigade when two or three shots were fired on the left of the road, and some stragglers came running in from that direction, and immediately a volley was poured into the head of our column from the woods on our right, occupied by Mahone's brigade. By this volley General Longstreet was prostrated by a fearful wound; Brigadier-General Jenkins, Capt. Alfred E. Doby, my aide-de-camp, and Orderly Marcus Baum were instantly killed.
I have not the particulars of casualties at hand, except those in Kershaw's brigade, which were 57 killed, 239 wounded and 26 missing. Among the losses of that brigade were two of the most gallant and accomplished field officers of the command—Col. James D. Nance, commanding Third South Carolina regiment, and Lieut.-Col. Franklin Gaillard—both gentlemen of education, position and usefulness in civil life and highly distinguished in the field. Captain Doby had served with me as aide-de-camp from the commencement of the war. He distinguished himself upon every battlefield.
Colonel Bowen, in describing the service of his regiment (Jenkins' brigade), says:
General Longstreet did not fall from his horse, but rode the length of the regiment (Second rifles), when he began to reel, and Lieutenant-Colonel Donnald and Sergt. T. J. Bowen caught him and lifted him down from his horse. Colonel Bowen formed his regiment across the plank road in order to repel an attack in case the enemy should return. Just at that time Gen. R. E. Lee rode up and ordered Colonel Bowen to form the brigade on the right and left of the Second rifles. Colonel Coward came up and threw himself, weeping, over the dead body of the gallant Jenkins. General Anderson was called to take command of the corps and Colonel Bratton took command of the brigade. The sharpshooters and the Second rifles were then ordered to the front and right, and after a half mile's march found that the enemy had improved the brief lull in the fight by throwing up intrenchments, from behind which they opened a terrific fire. The advance regiments held their position and suffered a heavy loss, until, as reinforcements came up, the enemy fell back.
The return of Colonel Hagood, of Jenkins' brigade—10 killed and 82 wounded out of 261—indicates the losses of the troops engaged. The 7th passed without a general engagement, but instead the positions of both armies were changed from day to day, and a part of Kershaw's command fought with success on the 8th, at one time using the bayonet. Repeated and heavy assaults were made on Ewell's corps during the 10th, and on the 11th the two armies confronted each other at Spottsylvania Court House, ready for the awful battle of the 12th of May.
The great struggle over the possession of the "bloody angle" began just before dawn by the successful sweep of the Federal divisions through Gen. Edward Johnson's line of intrenchments, thus threatening the overthrow of Lee's army. The particulars of this fearful encounter, which resulted, after the day's bloody fighting, in the defeat of Grant's purpose, will not be given here, but the part taken by McGowan's brigade deserves special mention. This brigade, stationed far out on the Confederate right, was summoned to action about sunrise, May 12th, and after a march of two miles to the left, was moved at double-quick along Ewell's line. General Rodes, seeing them approach, asked: "What troops are these?" and was answered, "McGowan's South Carolina brigade." "There are no better soldiers in the world," was his inspiring reply. Almost immediately the South Carolinians entered the fight, the Twelfth on the right, and the First, Thirteenth, the Rifles and the Fourteenth extending to the left consecutively. At double-quick and with the "rebel yell" they went into the inner line, where McGowan was wounded by a minie ball, and compelled to yield the command to Colonel Brockman, who in turn being quickly disabled by a wound, was succeeded by Col. J. N. Brown.
"At that time," says Col. I. F. Hunt, in his account of the battle, "the position of the Thirteenth regiment was in an open field, and about fifty yards in rear of a line of works occupied by Confederate troops (Harris' Mississippians), a position where we could do no good, while subjected to a terrific fire from the enemy, somewhat on our right. I saw General Gordon passing, and obtained permission to move the regiment to the right. He ordered me to take it to the point where the fighting was hardest." In moving to the right Colonel Hunt was informed that all his seniors had been killed or wounded and he took command of the brigade. He found the right of the brigade in a short line of reserve works, and perceiving that his men must either charge or retreat or die where they stood, he ordered a charge, and drove the enemy from the salient, or "bloody angle." In occupying that work the left of the brigade connected with and possibly lapped other troops, but the right was unprotected, and as far down the right as Hunt could see, the Federals held the opposite side of the works, with the captured Confederate guns turned against him. The ammunition soon began to give out, and although it appeared to be certain death to leave the shelter of the works, Privates William Kelly and Chance Evans of the First volunteered to, and did bring ammunition from, the rear in boxes and tent flies during the entire engagement. At 1 p. m., the enemy about ten paces distant, raised a white flag, and a general advanced who, when met by Hunt, demanded a surrender, which was promptly refused. Soon afterward Col. J. N. Brown took command.
The fierceness of this close engagement by McGowan's brigade,[J] in which Harris' Mississippians bore an equally gallant part, on the left, was probably not exceeded in any war. The firing, when resumed after the parley above mentioned, continued incessantly all the remainder of the day and far into the night. Just before day the brigade was withdrawn without pursuit to a position near a part of Longstreet's corps, and there rested with their Confederate comrades ready for the enemy, who did not choose to advance. In this battle the brigade lost 86 killed, 241 wounded and 117 missing. Among the missing, it was afterward learned, were a large number wounded and left in the trenches and others that were killed. Among the casualties were Lieut.-Col. W. P. Shooter, of the First, and Col. B. T. Brockman, of the Thirteenth, killed; Col. C. W. McCreary, of the First, and Lieut.-Col. G. McD. Miller, of the Rifles, wounded.
On the same day General Bratton's brigade (Jenkins') was in battle on the Brock road, on the right of Kershaw's brigade, and the two repulsed a heavy assault. Bratton reported that his brigade was about 1,250 strong, and lost not more than 15, but the enemy left 500 dead in its front. During the night Bratton's brigade covered the withdrawal of McGowan's brigade from the bloody angle, and without firing a gun, lost 70 men.
On the Cold Harbor line, June 1st, when a strong Confederate movement by the right was ordered, a diary of the First corps says:
Kershaw puts in his own brigade, supported by another. Keitt's big regiment gives way, and in the effort to rally it, Keitt is mortally wounded. Pickett is closed into the right on Kershaw, and the latter on Hoke. Field closes in on Pickett. In the afternoon a furious attack is made on the left of Hoke and the right of Kershaw, enemy penetrating an interval between them.... Kershaw brings up the Second and Third South Carolina and regains Bryan's lost ground, and captures prisoners and a stand of colors.... [On June 3d] Kershaw's salient is weak.... The expected battle begins early. Meantime the enemy is heavily massed in front of Kershaw's salient. Anderson's, Law's and Gregg's divisions are there to support Kershaw. Assault after assault is made and each time repulsed.