Champion Hill by Timothy B. Smith

Author:Timothy B. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS036051
ISBN: 9781611210002
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Published: 2004-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

Colonel Daniel Macauley

11th Indiana Infantry

Courtesy of Craig Dunn, Civilwarindiana.com

On the left side of Hovey’s division was James Slack’s brigade. After its hard-charging effort against the 56th and 57th Georgia and Waddell’s guns, Slack had but little time to straighten out his jumbled line just north of the Middle Road and east of the crossroads. His front had been tossed roughly about, and the state of its organization is unclear. Generally, speaking, the 24th Iowa held the right near the intersection, with the 56th Ohio on its left and the 28th Iowa, having just come up, extending the line east. (Colonel John McLaughlin’s 47th Indiana, it will be recalled, had moved by the right flank earlier in the attack and was fighting west of the Jackson Road.) It was upon these three regiments that the full fury of Martin Green’s attack would fall.36

Elements of the brigade had driven perhaps 50 yards beyond Waddell’s guns to the rail fence, explained Slack, “when a new rebel line, which had not been in action, appeared in treble our force.” Slack was speaking of Green’s pending attack from below the Middle Road, which was being directly supervised by General Bowen. Lieutenant Williams watched with his comrades of the 56th Ohio while lying behind the wooden fence. “From our position we could see the enemy forming to attack us, the woods in our front being open with a gradual slope toward them. With their skirmishers well advanced, the main force in two heavy lines of battle moved on our position.” Williams never forgot what may have been his best firsthand view of Confederate skirmishers at work. “The open timber in our front gave us a good view of them as they came on. Their skirmishers sprang from tree to tree until some of them were just across the road from us, and one had dropped behind a rail-cut that I could reach with my gun.” The right side of the Ohio line stitched a ragged volley at the approaching infantry. “You had better stop, boys! They may be our men,” shouted a captain.

“Captain, take a look at them!” replied Cpl. David Evans.

The captain peered more closely over the fence. “His view was satisfactory,” Lieutenant Williams dryly recalled, and prompted the alarmed captain to yell out, “Up boys and give them hell!”

When the order was given, “the whole regiment [opened] the hottest kind of a fire.” One eyewitness claimed the “withering” small arms fire forced the first line of Green’s advance to “veer off to the right and left” in an attempt to avoid the killing hail of lead rounds.37

On the 56th Ohio’s left was Col. John Connell’s 28th Iowa. The enemy, he later reported, “appeared to be largely re-enforced.” Even with the 56th on his right flank, the uneven arrangement of the front allowed some of Green’s infantry to shoot down Connell’s line. The leaden fire tore into soft flesh, the dull thuds accented by the sickening and sharper sounds of bullets biting into bone. “We

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.