Assaulting the Confederate Battle Line

After crossing the creek and realigning, General Frank Wheaton’s 1st Division reached General Richard S. Ewell’s entrenched Confederate line along the ridge first because it had less distance to cover. The Union soldiers advanced under orders not to open fire until within two hundred yards or less, and when Wheaton’s men came within one hundred yards, some of the approaching Federals showed handkerchiefs as an invitation to surrender. A Confederate officer then gave the order to ready, aim, and fire, and the Confederate soldiers rose together, leveled their muskets low toward the advancing line, and unleashed volleys that swallowed up the first Federal line. The second Union line wavered and finally broke under the repeated fire, and the 2nd Rhode Island and 49th Pennsylvania were among the regiments that retreated to the creek.

Virginia · United States