The Fredericksburg Campaign by Francis Augustín O'Reilly

Author:Francis Augustín O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2006-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Howard and Sturgis’ Advance

Hall’s brigade crawled out of the basin to attack the Confederates beyond the right of Owen’s brigade. Northerners stared across four hundred yards of clear, open fields. A member of the Harvard regiment thought the ground unfolded “as smooth as the glacis of a fort” to the base of the heights. Nerves grew taut, and men felt like they would burst. “O dear me I was afraid when I was first under fire,” wrote George A. Patch of the 19th Massachusetts, “but if I had run away I should not have conquered my fear any, but on the contrary, should have made myself more” frightened.19

As soon as Hall’s right stepped out of the bottoms, the 19th Massachusetts stumbled. The regiment had not covered fifty yards before it turned back. Captain Macy’s 20th Massachusetts continued to advance alone. Captain Abbott later complained that the brigade functioned “without the slightest notion of what was intended to be accomplished.” Part of the confusion stemmed from the fact that Hall had not ordered an advance. The 20th Massachusetts struggled up the slope, unaware of the mixup. “The enthusiasm of the soldiers has been all gone for a long time,” declared one officer. He attributed any effort shown by the regiment to “discipline and old associations.” Captain Ferdinand Dreher, Macy’s senior—and rival for command of the regiment—fell mortally wounded. The rest of the regiment lay down in the field, unable to go any farther.20

Brigade commander Norman Hall ordered the renegade 20th Massachusetts to fall back to the millrace. Macy’s men withdrew deliberately, much to the admiration of their leader. “I am more proud of this retreat than anything,” Macy reported. “It was done coolly.” Hall, on the other hand, criticized Macy for charging “without my knowledge, and, in forming line, created some confusion at that point.”21

Hall straightened out the line and launched a coordinated attack. The brigade surged forward, and the waiting Confederates threw a storm of shot at it. A Michigan soldier wrote, “We received such a withering, deadly fire… that it was impossible to get more than half way across that open ground.” The left started to waver, but Hall’s right slogged up the soggy slope with conviction. Confederate volleys staggered the attackers at 150 to 200 yards from the base of Marye’s Heights. A 19th Massachusetts man recalled, “The whole line was enveloped in a cloud of sulphurous smoke, almost hiding the regiments from each other.” Groups of men dropped mangled and torn. A New Englander thought, “the slaughter had been beyond description.” A sergeant recollected, “No one who has not witnessed such a scene can form any idea of the awfulness of that hour.” The 7th Michigan troops lost contact with the rest of the brigade in the black powder haze. One of them wrote, “It seemed as if the earth had opened up and swallowed whole regiments at a time.” The New York regiments retreated to the millrace. The 7th Michigan headed in the same direction. Only the 19th and 20th Massachusetts ventured closer to the Sunken Road.

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