Military
5
The fate of Devil's Den was partly decided in the Triangular Field, the grassy five acres in front of the position, where Union infantry supporting Smith's 4th New York Battery held the rocky ridge behind it. About 4:00 p.m. on July 2, after a 30-minute artillery duel, Colonel P.A. Work's 1st Texas Infantry appeared behind a stone wall at the lower edge of the field. The Texas marksmen silenced the cannon, which could not be aimed low enough to hit them, then jumped the wall and advanced up the field. When they neared the upper wall, Colonel A. Van Horne Ellis ordered his New Yorkers to open fire, staggering the Texans. A daring Union counterattack across the field kept the Southerners at bay, but Ellis was shot dead. Then Brigadier General Henry L. Benning led his Georgia Brigade up through the field in support of the Texans, and the hard-pressed Union defenders could not hold, so Devil's Den fell to the Confederates.
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