division, under Rodes, held the front line. On the left of this division was Iverson with the Fifth, Twelfth, Twentieth and Twenty-third North Carolina regiments. In reserve just behind Rodes right brigade (Colquitt’s), was Ramseur, with the Second, Fourth, Fourteenth and Thirtieth North Carolina regiments. Trimble’s division under Colston composed the second line; in this were the First and Third North Carolina regiments. A. P. Hill’s formed the third line. Two of his brigades, Lane’s and Fender’s, were entirely composed of North Carolinians.
General Howard, in spite of repeated warnings, had not strengthened his position, and when Jackson’s troops rushed fiercely upon his command, over half of which was composed of Germans, his men were cooking supper and amusing themselves. Colonel Dodge, of the Federal army, writes: "At 6 p. m. the order was given, and 22,000 of the best infantry in existence closed rapidly down upon the flank of 10,000 of the least hardened of the troops of the army of the Potomac. . . . The fight was short, sharp, deadly, but partial only. But the force on the right was swept away like a cobweb by Jackson s mighty besom. . . . Never was an army more completely surprised, more absolutely overwhelmed. . . . Happily, night was approaching and Jackson s troops had to be halted and reformed, his three lines having become inextricably mixed."[1]
With the exception of some of Schurz’s regiments and Buschbeck’s brigade, which made a gallant stand in some breastworks from which Doles drove it, there was no severe fighting until Berry s division could be placed in position. Then the lines were exposed to much hotter fire. However, the North Carolinians, as well as their comrades, had, although their success was marvelous, no such arduous battling as came on the next day. Col. H. A. Brown, in his Regimental History, says: "We captured piles of fat knapsacks and piles of fatter
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- ↑ Boston Speech.
