Lying in Wait

At midday in the Battle of Cross Keys, Confederate Gen. Isaac Trimble moved his brigade from a less satisfactory position about a half mile to a stronger concealed line behind a fence with a clover field in front and woods to the rear. He personally scouted the ground, then brought his regiments forward through the trees and deployed them there: the 21st Georgia arrived first and lay behind the fence, the 16th Mississippi took position on the Georgians’ right after crawling forward on their hands and knees and pushing their guns through the fence, and the 15th Alabama extended the far right along a ravine concealed from enemy view. As the Union advance led by the 8th New York Infantry approached, Confederate skirmishers in the open fell back to the main line, while the Federals, having sent out no skirmishers, received no warning of the danger ahead. Colonel James Cantey of the 15th Alabama ordered his men to hold their fire until they could see the whites of their enemies’ eyes, and Colonel John Mercer of the 21st Georgia warned that any man who fired before his order would be shot. The Union troops marched into a depression in front of the line and briefly disappeared from view; when they emerged from the hollow only yards away, the decisive moment of the battle had arrived.

Virginia · United States