[152] was never afterward occupied by the enemy in force, although his pickets reoccupied most of it that night. In this charge Major Moore and Captain Ballantine were wounded and left on the field, the former seriously, the latter not so badly. Captain Gardner also lost an arm, but got off the field. Our loss in line officers and enlisted men was very severe. Lieutenant Peeler, acting aide-de-camp, acted very gallantly, and was wounded in this day's fight. This charge ended the fighting for the day, the enemy seemingly in no humor for following up his advantage. On the 3d, General Longstreet bringing sixty pieces of artillery up, and General Hill having fifty more in position, about 3 p. m. they opened a most terrific fire upon the enemy's stronghold with the intention of shelling them out. The enemy soon replied, and for nearly three hours the most terrific cannonading that I ever witnessed was kept up from both sides, until our ammunition was almost exhausted, when the firing slackened. Pickett's division renewed the assault made by us the previous evening. They advanced in beautiful order in three lines, but before they had gone far the wounded and the frightened came running back in large numbers, and it was impossible to tell when the main body came back. During this, Wilcox's brigade and our brigade had been lying under cover, supporting the batteries which were shelling the enemy's works. I had orders to connect with Wilcox's left and move with him. As soon as Pickett's division had retired we were thrown forward, as a forlorn hope I suppose, notwithstanding the repulse of the day before and the repulse of Pickett's whole division not twenty minutes before. Our two brigades, of about 1,400 men, advanced to the charge nobly. As we neared the point from which we had been repulsed the day before, heavy columns advanced upon both flanks, and our artillery, having exhausted their ammunition, did not fire a shot at them. Being unsupported by an advance upon any other part of the line, and having but one line, the enemy paid his undivided attention to us, and our only safety from utter annihilation was in retreat. The Second Florida being on the left and their color-bearer wounded, they lost their colors and the greater part of their men. In the retreat the day before, the color-bearer and the
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Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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