“Their Conduct was Worthy of Veterans”

Brigadier General William Smith massed 18 cannons in an open field within 500 yards of the opposite shore and deployed Brigadier General William T.H. Brooks’s Vermont Brigade along the Warwick River with two brigades in support. Four companies of Colonel Breed N. Hyde’s 3rd Vermont Infantry were selected to cross the river under the command of Captain Fernando Harrington, and Brooks gave Corporal Alonzo Hutchinson a white handkerchief as a signal for reinforcements. Around 3:00 p.m., the Union attack proceeded under covering artillery fire as the Green Mountain boys waded into the Warwick and met a hail of bullets. Major General George McClellan said their conduct was worthy of veterans. Dragging their wounded onto the bank, the Vermonters captured the Confederate rifle pits and waited for an expected counterattack. Pickets from the 15th North Carolina Infantry fell back, and Colonel Robert M. McKinney halted his Tarheels from constructing earthworks and charged the soaked Vermonters. The counterattack soon faltered after McKinney fell with a bullet in the forehead, and the regiment received an unauthorized order to retreat. The Vermont troops, however, held a precarious position with wet ammunition and no sign of reinforcements.

Newport News, Virginia · United States