Braving the Fire

After briefly reorganizing in the low ground behind this position, the Union attacking force defied heavy infantry and artillery fire and lunged toward the steep earth walls of Fort Harrison. S. Millett Thompson of the 13th New Hampshire Infantry recalled men falling riddled with bullets, great gaps torn in the ranks by shells, solid shot or shell passing straight through ten or twenty men, some literally cut in two, others blown to pieces, and the horrors of an assault in force repeated over and over again.

Virginia · United States