Shooting Gallery

From here, Confederate gunners in S.D. Lee's Battalion had a clear view of Porter's attack, the most formidable onslaught of the three days. With few trees between them and the nearest Union columns a third of a mile away, Colonel Lee's men jumped to their guns and opened fire as thousands of bluecoats swept across the field. The heavy bombardment, a rain of whizzing shell fragments, kept reinforcements from crossing the field and helped ensure Union defeat at Deep Cut. When the first group of Federals finally retreated from the railroad grade, Lee's artillerists fired shell and case shot onto the field with pinpoint accuracy. As one survivor wrote, the ground seemed like a millpond in a shower, so frequently did shells rip the earth.

Haymarket, Virginia · United States