Slaughter Pen Farm

Just before 2 p.m., Gen. John Gibbon ordered Col. Adrian Root's men to cross the railroad and enter the woods beyond. With flags in front and bayonets fixed, Root's men and remnants from Taylor's and Lyle's brigades advanced through intense fire, and at the edge of the woods Union troops and Gen. James H. Lane's North Carolinians fought at close range with clubbed muskets, bayonets, swords, and pistols. Outnumbered and out of ammunition, the Confederates fell back with Union troops in close pursuit, trampling dead and wounded soldiers in the process. But, like Gen. George G. Meade's penetration of the Confederate line to Gibbon's left, this breakthrough was in vain, because Gibbon's troops were disorganized, low on ammunition, and without support, and Confederate reserves soon arrived in force and pushed the Union troops back across the railroad.

Virginia · United States