the batteries), and lost 455 killed and wounded, and 16 prisoners. The Eleventh Alabama (commanded by Captain Field, who received two wounds) lost forty-nine privates killed, and of its ten company commanders, five were killed outright, one was mortally, two were severely and one was slightly wounded. It entered the field 357 strong, and had 181 killed and wounded.
Having united the remnants of these regiments in the wood in front of Cooper's battery, which had been taken by the Ninth and Tenth Alabama, General Wilcox still exchanged musketry with the enemy, who remained in the woods behind the battery, and did not offer to re-occupy it.[1]
Meanwhile the remainder of A. P. Hill's division having been moved forward, Field's brigade (with the exception of the Fortieth Virginia, which was sent to protect the right flank of Pickett's brigade, and was heavily engaged there) was ordered to renew the attack upon Randall's and Cooper's batteries. Archer's brigade was sent to the support of Pickett, and J. R. Anderson and Pender were held in reserve for a short time. Field formed in single line on each side of the Long Bridge road, the Fifty-fifth and Sixtieth Virginia on the right, and the Forty-seventh and Second Virginia battalion on the left. The whole line then rushed to the charge with a cheer, and in spite of a heavy fire which met them, they continued to advance with impetuosity and repossessed both Randall's and Cooper's batteries, and drove off their infantry supports; the two regiments on the right of the road pursuing them nearly a half mile.[2]
- ↑ The details of the charge of the 11th Alabama are obtained from General Wilcox's report and an account by General McCall (who was present in Randall's battery at the time), published in Report of Committee on Conduct of War, Vol. 1, page 588. In another report, Pennsylvania Reserves in the Peninsula, page 5, General McCall says of this affair: "Bayonets were crossed and locked in the struggle; bayonet wounds were freely given and received. I saw skulls crushed by the heavy blow of the butt of the musket, and, in short, the desperate thrusts and parries of a life-and-death encounter, proving indeed that Greek had met Greek when the Alabama boys fell upon the sons of Pennsylvania."
General Wilcox gives two instances of the desperate character of the fighting, as follows: "The sword and bayonet were freely used. Captain W. C. Parker had two successive encounters with Federal officers, both of whom he felled with his sword, and beset by others of the enemy he was severely wounded―receiving two bayonet wounds in the breast and one in his side, and a musket wound breaking his thigh. Lieutenant Michie had a hand-to-hand collision with an officer, and, having just dealt a severe blow to his adversary, he fell cut over the head with a sabre-bayonet from behind, and had afterwards three bayonet wounds in the face and two in the breast; all severe wounds, which he survived, however, for three days. Many of the men received and gave in return bayonet wounds." Reports of Army Northern Virginia, vol. 1, page 343.
- ↑ In this charge the bayonet was again freely used by the Sixtieth Virginia, Colonel Starke, who met the enemy in the wood, in rear of Cooper's battery. Colonel Starke, in his official report, says, "very many of the enemy fell before that formidable weapon. * * * I can-
