Final Stand

At Gaines’ Mill, Civil War artillery served as a powerful defensive weapon, though the woods hindered Union gunners except where gaps in the trees gave them a direct line of sight to Confederate infantry massing 300 yards away. Along most of the line, Union artillery fired through or over the open woods. During the battle’s climactic moments, the gunners of the 5th Massachusetts Battery briefly ceased firing as retreating Union infantry streamed out of the woods in front of them. When the advancing Confederates appeared, the gunners opened fire on them, and the Confederates answered, leaving many dead horses and wounded artillerymen. The battery then limbered up and withdrew to higher, safer ground. Lieutenant Charles A. Phillips recalled Confederates rushing through the woods and over the brook, filled with dead bodies, while smoke filled the woods, bullets buzzed around their heads, his horse was wounded, and a sergeant’s horse lay dead on the ground.

Virginia · United States