A Perfect Sheet Of Lead

In the early afternoon, as the initial Union attack collapsed and General Cuvier Grover's division fell back in chaos and confusion, General William Emory ordered General William Dwight to stop the collapse at once. Because Dwight's troops were still marching through the woods in column and were not yet in position, he ordered General George Beal to send one of his regiments straight to the front. Beal advanced the 114th New York through the Middle Field into this area while Confederate General Cullen Battle's Alabama brigade fired on them and fugitives from Grover's division streamed back in panic across the ground ahead. Of the 350 men of the 114th New York who entered the fight, 185 were killed or wounded, but the regiment held its ground and fired back, helping stem the Confederate advance and buying enough time for the rest of Dwight's division to arrive and stabilize the Union right. Union Surgeon Harris H. Beecher, the regimental historian of the 114th New York, remembered that Stonewall Jackson's veterans fired amazingly low, cutting up the grass and earth in front of the regiment with what he called a perfect sheet of lead, while wounded men crawled to the rear and blood covered the scene. Colonel Per Lee, commander of the 114th New York, was shot through the neck but survived.

Virginia · United States