while, Longstreet was assailing the Federal left, and gaining ground with the remainder of his division, supported by reinforcements from Hill’s, called back from their march beyond Williamsburg. In the afternoon, General Hill brought his whole division on the field, and reinforcing the center, commanded by Anderson, and leading the left in person, a final advance was made which ended the fighting by sunset, the Confederates occupying the field, the Federals being repulsed from right to left.
In the defense of the center and left, Anderson’s brigade, under Jenkins, bore a conspicuous part. In Fort Magruder, the Richmond howitzers and the Fayette artillery lost so many men by the fire of the enemy, that details were made by Colonel Jenkins from the infantry to relieve the men at the guns. By concentrating the artillery fire on particular batteries in succession, and by volley firing at the gunners, Jenkins compelled his assailants to shift their positions, while the regiments of Bratton, Giles, Walker and Mattison poured their well-directed fire into the threatening columns of Federal infantry.
At an important period of the battle on the right, when the Federal left had been driven back and was exposed to the full fire of Fort Magruder, every gun was turned upon it. In the afternoon, and just before D. H. Hill’s attack on his right, the Federal commander had gained a position almost turning the Confederate left. At this critical juncture, the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth South Carolina regiments, with the Fourteenth Alabama, Major Royston, splendidly supported by Bearing’s and Stribling’s batteries, and three guns under Lieutenant Fortier, met the movement with firmness, and, aided by the fire from Fort Magruder, checked and repulsed the Federal right, and held the Confederate left intact.
General McClellan claimed a great victory at Williamsburg, basing his claim upon the occupation of the town the
