An hour had nearly elapsed since the front had been reached; several of the captains had reported that the guns of their men were getting so hot that the rammers were leaping out of the pipes at every discharge. The men had already nearly expended their ammunition. Several times during the battle the enemy had undertaken to come forward, but as often as they attempted it, they were swept back by our fire. Since General Meagher had been disabled, there had been no general officer present, each colonel acting upon his own responsibility. The enemy were well covered and determined.
Up to this time neither regiment had known the fate of the others, nor the extent of their respective losses. Colonel Barnes now hastened to the right of the Twenty-ninth, for the purpose of taking a careful survey of the field. To his dismay, he perceived that the Sixty-ninth, though holding on bravely, had lost nearly half their number; the Sixty-third had fared equally as hard, and the officers and men of both regiments were striving to keep up their formation. The Colonel, feeling a deep responsibility, saw at once that something must be done to prevent disaster; he knew, though he had received no orders since entering the fight, that from necessity the Brigade would soon be relieved, and was every moment expecting to hear the welcome shouts of fresh troops. Hastily giving his idea to Major Charles Chipman, his brave and worthy subordinate, he called upon the regiment for three cheers. The Major took the order to the left, and the boys gave the cheers with a will. Colonel Barnes then gave the order, “forward!” Instantly Sergeant Francis M. Kingman, the dauntless color-bearer, sprang to the front, the whole regiment promptly following him. Above the noise of the battle were heard the answering shouts of the brave Irishmen of the Brigade, their warlike spirit gaining fresh impulse as they started forward on the charge.
The crisis was over now; the bold forward movement had saved the Brigade from even one blot upon its bright record of fame. The shouts of our men, and their sudden dash toward the sunken road, so startled the enemy that their fire visibly slackened, their line wavered, and squads of two and three began leaving the road and running into the corn. Now the rush of troops was heard in the rear; now the air was rent with wild yells. It was altogether too much of a shock for the enemy; they broke, and fled for the corn-field. The next moment, Caldwell’s brigade, led by General Richardson in person, with Cross, Barlow, and all its other heroes, came sweeping up behind the shattered lines of the Irish Brigade. “The lines were passed by the Irish Brigade breaking company to the rear, and General Caldwell’s by company to the front, as steadily as on drill.”[36]
The night of the enemy was now complete. In a few moments Caldwell’s men were in possession of the road, and driving the Confederates through the corn-field and into the orchard beyond. The Irish Brigade, upon being thus relieved, fell back a short distance to the rear, retiring behind the first hill it had passed upon moving to the front. It had been in battle one hour and fifteen minutes. It was a sad sight to witness the broken and decimated ranks of the Sixty-third and Sixty-ninth, as they halted under the brow of the hill. The Sixty-third had lost very heavily of its officers and men, while the Sixty-ninth suffered even worse. Of seventy-two recruits who had joined the latter regiment a few days before, and who went into the battle with new uniforms, but two of the number escaped unhurt. Even in retiring from the front, the Brigade had suffered greatly from the fire of the enemy’s artillery, the Twenty-ninth suffering with the rest, though fortunately escaping the battle with a loss of only forty-four.
Panting from heat and exhaustion, the men at once stretched themselves upon the ground; but the Twenty-ninth had only rested a half-hour before they were again summoned by General Richardson to come to the front. Upon approaching the crest of the hill near the sunken road, the regiment was observed by General Richardson, who was personally directing the fire of a battery in a very exposed position. He beckoned Colonel Barnes to his side, and said, “I pray you, give me a canteen of water; I am dying of thirst.” The Colonel going back to the regiment, brought one of the numerous canteens, freely offered; but the General had barely raised it to his lips, when an exploding shell mortally wounded him.
The men, with sad hearts, watched the bleeding officer, as he was being borne away, never to return to his command, and then moved on toward the brow of the famous hill, now being swept by the artillery of the Confederates. Here the Twenty-ninth formed on the left of Caldwell’s brigade, and immediately threw out a line of skirmishers into the corn-field, joining the Fifth New Hampshire and other troops of the division engaged in a lively skirmish with the enemy, who was in the orchard, posted behind the trees and a long line of board fence, that ran along the edge of the orchard. The enemy’s troops here stationed were the same encountered by the Brigade in the battle of the morning, and were said to be a part of General Pryor’s division, the flower of the Confederate army. They were most excellent soldiers, fighting throughout the day with a determination that excited the wonder and admiration of all who encountered them.
The regiment retained the position just described during the remainder of the day and the night which followed. The enemy, with guns stationed in the orchard, and in advantageous positions on the right, enfiladed a part of our line here with murderous effect. General Hancock having assumed command of the division upon the wounding of General Richardson, was everywhere present, and exposed himself frequently to the fire. Hoping to silence the batteries of the Confederates, he sent forward several of our batteries to the hill last mentioned, and among them the “Dutch Battery,” so called. The latter came up well, but had fired but four rounds, when the men were driven from their guns, the regiment dragging off the abandoned pieces under the most perilous circumstances.
This part of the line was the scene of some of the most interesting events of the day, and every inch of ground was purchased with blood. The land over which Generals Richardson’s and French’s divisions fought was irregular in the extreme; “was intersected by numerous ravines, hills covered with growing corn enclosed by stone walls, behind which the enemy could advance unobserved upon any exposed part of our lines.” Once during the day the enemy attempted to gain the right of Richardson’s position in the corn-field. This movement was happily frustrated by the skilful manœuvres of General Brooks’s brigade.
General Caldwell’s brigade, after relieving the Irish Brigade in the forenoon, “with determined gallantry,” not only drove the enemy in their front, but taking the Confederate line in flank, at the right of the Brigade, captured three hundred prisoners and three stands of colors.
Shortly after the assault on the right, the enemy attempted to turn the left of the division, but were gallantly met by the Fifth New Hampshire (under the famous Colonel Cross) and the Eighty-first Pennsylvania. After a sharp contest and a remarkable charge by these regiments, the enemy fled in confusion, “leaving many killed, wounded and prisoners, and the colors of the Fourth North Carolina, in our hands.”