The grand assault.
At the same hour of 1 in the afternoon,
Burnside had ordered a grand assault of 60,000 men upon
Jackson's right, thus hoping by a simultaneous right-hand and left-hand assault to break through
Lee's right, and gain one of the two highways that led to
Richmond.
A. P. Hill's first line of battle was broken, but
Jackson, promptly informed of this assault, rode headlong to his right, and hurling
Early and
Taliaferro upon the now forward-rushing Federals, drove back their division in great disorder.
Near the middle of the afternoon a fourth assault was made upon
Marye's Heights.
This met the same fate as the previous three, and 1,000 were soon added to the dead and dying already covering the foot of these heights.
Stung almost to madness, and chafing under his almost total defeat,
Burnside, against the advice of
Hooker, ordered a fifth assault upon
Marye's Heights, but a fiery sheet of shot, shell, and musketry met them as they approached the stone fence, and another thousand fell in the same undertaking in which their predecessors had so significantly failed.
The task imposed upon them was beyond the reach of human accomplishment; but we can only admire the bravery exhibited by these Federal soldiers in their heroic attempt to capture these Heights.
From three different army corps 30,000 men had been hurled against 7,000 Georgians and Carolinians, but had been successfully driven back, and their front strewn with nearly 9,000 dead and wounded, while not a Federal soldier had touched the wall, so bravely held.
