Battery D First Rhode Island Light Artillery in the Civil War

by George C. Sumner

Immediately upon our left was a thin belt of woods, and beyond that an extensive cornfield, in which was done as stubborn fighting as was ever seen. During the whole day its possession was hotly contested; first one side and then the other would occupy it, and so vigorous was the assault, so brave the defence, that by noon it was possible to trace where the various stands had been made, by the continuous lines of dead and wounded, extending from one side of the cornfield to the other.

After the cessation of the artillery fire, the men of Battery D were kept busy replenishing the limber chests with ammunition, and various other duties, until about nine o'clock, and for an hour afterwards had a comparatively easy time. Two batteries in our line, Campbell's and Reynolds's, were moved from their position near us to a new one just beyond the woods in the edge of the cornfield, where they received very warm treatment.

About ten A.M. one of Gen. Hooker's staff came to Capt. Monroe and ordered him to report to Gen. Hooker. After ordering the drivers to mount, and putting the column in motion, left in front, under Lieut. Fisk, Capt. Monroe sought Gen. Hooker, whom he found at the front of our line of battle, mounted upon a white horse, altogether the most conspicuous object in that vicinity, and less than five hundred yards from the rebel line. As coolly as though in a drawing room, he pointed out to the Captain the position he desired him to occupy, and the work he wanted him to do. The position was upon the top of a slight elevation fully a hundred yards in front of our line of battle, and the work was the silencing of a rebel battery which had secured a position from which they had an enfilade fire upon our line of battle, which was very destructive.

Upon receiving this order, Capt. Monroe returned to the battery, joining us just as we had passed through the woods and were entering the cornfield. Our passage through this field was necessarily slow, because of the impossibility of moving in a direct line in consequence of the great number of dead and wounded; frequent stops had to be made for the purpose of moving them out of the way.

Just after crossing the Smoketown road Capt. Monroe halted the caissons and advanced the pieces a short distance and gave the order "Form line advancing, trot, march," and soon gave the order "In battery, action front," "Commence firing." This manœuvre brought us upon level ground nearly in front of the Dunker Church, and about one hundred and twenty-five yards from the Hagerstown Pike.

The battery that we were to silence was south of the church on the east of the pike. They did not seem to pay any attention to us until we were fairly in battery, and had opened on them, then it was give and take for a few minutes. They had been firing at quite long range, and did not get their guns depressed so as to do us any damage, all of their shots going over us. Our gunners were putting case shot in among them at a rapid rate, and soon their fire slackened and in a little while ceased altogether. After the smoke had cleared away we found that they had retired, leaving one limber and several dead men and horses on the ground they had occupied.

We stopped firing and watched a brigade of our infantry which was going into position on our right and rear. They moved to the right until they were on a line with our right piece, and then faced to the front and charged into the woods just to the north of the Dunker Church. In the meantime we began to get a few minie balls from the south of the church, and sent back a few shells; but we soon had orders to cease firing, as there was some doubt about whether the brigade that had just passed into the woods had not moved to that side of the church. It was not over six or eight minutes before volley after volley was fired in the woods just behind the church, and the brigade which had charged into the woods but a few minutes before in such dashing style now came pouring out in a confused mass. They had run into a large force of the rebels and could not hold their ground.

We expected now to get the order to limber up and move to the rear; but instead, we were ordered to "Commence firing." Up to this time we had lost but two men and two or three horses. We directed our fire into the woods in our front, and in a few minutes we saw a line of rebels coming through the woods just to the right of the church. Knowing that if that line was not stopped that Battery D was in a bad place, as they would flank us on the right, and the ground to our left was such that we could not get out that way, we sent round after round of canister at them in quick succession, and had the satisfaction of seeing the line waver and then break and return to the woods.

We were now feeling that we had things our own way again, but the minie bullets were beginning to come again, not so thick as before, but with a great deal of accuracy, and we soon found, that although we had driven the main line back, in the meantime quite a number of sharpshooters had dropped into the depression on the east side of the pike, and also behind a pile of rails on our right not over seventy-five yards away, and were making it very uncomfortable for us. The right piece of the centre section had three number ones shot down before they could load their piece, and had lost every man but Corp. Gray and private Mills. The piece was finally loaded, and a shell was sent into the pile of rails, which must have done some damage. The right piece had lost every horse on its limber, and the other pieces were suffering losses in men and horses.