The Texans Attack

Brigadier General John Gregg formed his four Confederate regiments near the far edge of Tapp Field and advanced them about 400 yards toward the Union battle line. Moving diagonally across the clearing, the right half of the brigade crossed the Orange Plank Road as it reached the enemy. Federal troops under Brigadier General James S. Wadsworth, including the renowned Iron Brigade, unleashed a storm of bullets while the Texans and Arkansans dashed forward. When Gregg’s troops reached Wadsworth’s position, the fighting became a terrible crash with wild yelling and a steady roar of musketry. The hand-to-hand combat lasted less than ten minutes before Gregg ordered a retreat. More than half of his 800 men were left where they fell, killed or wounded. Other brigades endured the same deadly experience, and together they halted the Federal offensive.

Virginia · United States