The Federals Collapse

Amid disorder and excitement, Federal troops broke under intense fire as men ran for their lives through a field swept by bullets and by twenty or thirty cannon firing grape and canister in incessant showers, while the shrieks of the wounded and dying rose above the noise and dozens fell on every side. John E. Stewart of the 44th New York Infantry recalled how almost no resistance could be made against the tide of humanity pressing down upon them, and Lew McKoy of the same regiment said that every regiment, brigade, and division in that line ran, returned, and ran again.

Virginia · United States