Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[775] attack: his soldiers nevertheless eagerly rush forward, reach the road, and, their two lines having been united, scale the side of the trench, beyond which they are awaited by Colonel Heath, whom Webb has placed on his right with Harrow's brigade. But this effort has exhausted them, and after a short struggle, almost hand to hand, they are repulsed, and withdraw in disorder. The Federal battery posted on the opposite bank of the stream, and whose fire Poague has not been able to silence, overwhelms them with shot and shell at the moment when they throw themselves into the trench: a number are killed; others, perhaps remembering the danger through which they had passed, under Heth and Pender, at Gettysburg, prefer surrendering to crossing the road, or hide themselves among rocks, where they are soon captured. The Twenty-sixth and Twenty-eighth North Carolina are nearly annihilated. On the right, General Cook has been wounded almost at the same time as Kirkland, but Colonel Hall, who has assumed command, on seeing the troops of the latter pushing on, has also brought his own forward. The firing is interrupted; the whole line moves forward—not so fast, however, as the next brigade. Being themselves exposed to a terrific fire, Hill's soldiers have soon to witness the defeat of their comrades. At twenty-five yards from the road, the left, composed of the Forty-eighth North Carolina, breaks its decimated ranks and carries away with it the remainder of the troops. In this retreat the two Southern brigades inadvertently pass beyond the battery placed by McIntosh to support them, their immediate commanders ignoring its presence. Warren, whom no incident of the battle escapes, pushes forward his skirmishers, killing or capturing the gunners, seizing the guns, and bringing five of them into his lines. Walker, who, perceiving the change of position made by his neighbors on the right, has immediately recrossed the stream, arrives too late to save the guns, but he forms, with Davis and with Poague's artillery, a new line, which covers the debris of the two other brigades, whose defeat has been bloody and complete.

On the right of the Confederates, Anderson's two brigades composed, before Cook's and Kirkland's attack, the prolongation of their line. They have not come forward, because their commander has been ordered to join Ewell, whom he vainly