At noon in the midst of a perfect bedlam caused by the roar
of artillery, shrieking, bursting, hurtling shells, and the voices of many
officers pitched high so as to be heard above the din, giving orders, the
assault was made through the thin strip of timber in our front toward
Winchester when we briefly halted and laid on the ground, and then across an
open field beyond the woods in all about two hundred and fifty yards where I
was, midst a perfect storm of solid shot and shell, rattling musketry on my right
and front, and whizzing minie balls without being able to fire a rifle at first
so well was the enemy in my front protected by the lay of the ground and its
rail breastworks. We persistently advanced, though, but it took a great deal of
nerve and will power to do it in an open field without the slightest cover, all
the time midst a perfect storm of iron and leaden hail and the cries of the
wounded and dying which were disconcerting, until we drove the enemy back pell
mell from its works in my front in the utmost confusion — yes, in a perfect
stampede for they were old soldiers and knew when they were whipped, and when
it was necessary to run with all their might to save themselves from slaughter
and ignominious capture. (See Nos. 3 foreground and Nos. 5 and 6
illustrations).
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No. 7 – Ravine looking southerly from where the pike crosses
it in front of most of the First Brigade, Third Division, and the right of the
Second Division, Sixth Corps, mentioned by Col. A. F. Walker. Only about a
regiment of the enemy was here which crossed the pike to the front of the right
of the Tenth Vermont, early.
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SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections
and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 162-3
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