Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[322] While the Union foot-soldiers thus fight at close quarters, the artillerists train their pieces on the rear of the column, which has not yet reached the ditch; following Benjamin's example, they light with their hands the fuses of their shells to roll them from the top of the parapet down into the midst of the human mass swaying at their feet. At last, the guns placed so as to flank the two faces of the salient angle attacked by McLaws fire a few canister shots, enfilading the ditch, and send the last missiles of death to the troops which fill it. The assailants are vanquished. The struggle has been short, but perhaps never in the whole course of the war have so many corpses, in so short a time, covered as narrow a space of ground. The battalions that have remained on the glacis dare not enter the fatal ditch wherein an awful, certain, useless death awaits them; they hesitate, disband, and return on the run to the point whence they started. At that moment, in consequence either of an order misunderstood or a thoughtless suggestion, Anderson's brigade advances in turn. Forthwith all the fire of the defence converges on that column, which the early light of day enables the enemy plainly to discern. It encounters the same obstacles as did the first, and clears them with the same ardor; but once at the foot of the parapet it cannot stand the fire and falls back in disorder.

Finally, day breaks—a sad, raw day—upon an awful scene. Upward of one hundred and twenty killed and four hundred and fifty wounded men fill the ditch or lie near the glacis and among the stumps of trees, thus marking the bloody track made by the assaulting columns. The total losses of the assailants amount to seven hundred and thirteen men, among whom are two hundred and sixteen prisoners who were found hidden at the foot of the scarp. The defenders have had, on their side, only thirteen men disabled, thanks to their coolness and the manner in which they were directed.

Robertson and Law, warned by the sound of the cannonade, made before seven o'clock the attack enjoined upon them. This demonstration was crowned with a complete success. The Twenty-fourth and the Twenty-seventh Kentucky, which occupied the breastworks constructed by Shackelford, were surprised, and abandoned these works, leaving about seventy men in the hands