Early in the morning we went again, and there under the fence, with a small red cedar growing over it, was “the boulder.” We easily changed the fence and obliterated the road in our mind’s eyes, and thereupon everything came out clearly. We know precisely where the General sat on his horse when he talked with Jordan, and there it is, as we understand it, he was wounded. We borrowed tools from our host and set up our marker forthwith for the edification of our 125th Penn. comrades, who soon came trooping down on us. Maj. Jordan staid by his marker all day, defending the truth most vigorously. I went with Capt. Gardner and Lieut. Dunegan to the place where they say Mansfield fell from his saddle and was borne off by two of their men. The place is about 600 yards from where Mansfield was shot. From others of the 125th it was evident that Gen. Mansfield’s riderless horse did bring up at about the place pointed out, but we know the fatal shot came to the General himself while he halted in front of Captain Jordan.
The thoroughly good feeling shown to us by all of these good fellows of the old 125th has not been forgotten, and never can be; and in telling the true story I am not a little embarrassed with the fact that I seem to make reflections upon some of them.
THE CONFEDERATES.
It has been stated that the 10th Maine was the extreme left of Hooker’s command (1st and 12th corps) during the 40 minutes, more or less, the regiment was engaged. The Confederate troops opposed to us and to our neighbors[14] on the right were from Hood’s division.[15]
The 4th Alabama was the right regiment of all, and they came up the Smoketown road from the West Woods in a hurry. On reaching East Woods they deployed and advanced “in line.” On nearing the woods Maj. Robbins met what he understood at the time was a half regiment of Georgia troops, who told him they had already been in the fight and would go in again. He ordered them to form on his right and advance in line with him. All was done in great haste, and in consequence of this and the broken character of the woods and the rush for shelter, the two commands were mixed all together, the Georgians, however, being naturally in preponderance on the Confederate right. Some time after they had been engaged the 5th Texas, under Capt. Turner, was sent in by Gen. Hood, and they mixed in with the others wherever a chance offered. All this I have learned by correspondence with many members from each of Hood’s regiments.
After a long and intensely exciting hunt for the Georgia regiment that this battalion belonged to—Major Robbins remembering only that their number was “in the twenties”—I have learned that it was the skirmisher battalion of Gen. Colquitt’s brigade of D. H. Hill’s division, composed of one company each (Co. A generally) from the five regiments of his brigade, viz: 6th, 23d, 27th and 28th Georgia and 13th Alabama, under Capt. Wm. M. Arnold, of the 6th Georgia. We therefore made a mistake in the number only when we marked those head boards “20 Georgia.” This battalion got into the fight an hour or more before their brigade and fought independently of it. The troops under Robbins, Turner and Arnold are the only Confederates, so far as I can learn, that did heavy fighting in East Woods.[16] There were no better troops in the Confederate army; they suffered a loss in killed and wounded of nearly one-half, and probably inflicted a still larger numerical loss upon the Union troops.
OFFICIAL REPORTS.
We will next look at the Official Reports bearing on the subject. (See Vol. XIX, Part I, Official Record, War of the Rebellion, U. S. Gov’t printing office.)
I. In Lt.-Col. Fillebrown’s[17] report (10th Maine) there is no mention of the event, nor is there anything else that has the merit of being both true and worth recording. (See page 489.)