Like the Coming of a Cyclone

At Ox Ford during the Overland Campaign in May 1864, skirmishers of the 2nd Georgia Battalion in General Ambrose Wright’s Brigade defended the crossing from fighting pits in a position that allowed them to fire into the flank of Ledlie’s assaulting columns without being detected. E. A. Shiver recalled being ordered forward up a ravine whose face was almost perpendicular until the men reached the plateau above, exhausted and out of breath, when they heard a noise like the coming of a cyclone or a herd of steers. From behind trees for protection, Shiver and Tinsley saw the left files of three columns passing across their front and fired into the flanks of the first line, loading and firing as fast as they could while return fire sent bark flying from the trees. Two soldiers of the 56th Massachusetts, Sergeants Charles W. Boyer and Walter Cook, were wounded in action at Ox Ford on May 24, 1864.

Virginia · United States