The Tigers Attack

When Gen. Richard Taylor ordered a charge, 1,700 Louisianans, including Wheat's Battalion, the Louisiana Tigers, burst from the woods, crossed the ravine, and stormed up the slope toward the Union guns. After the surprised Federal gunners recovered and blasted them with shot, shell, grape, canister, and whatever else they could load into the cannon, the Confederates swarmed over the guns and the struggle became a savage hand-to-hand fight, with iron-tipped ramrods against bayonets and clubbed muskets. In fifteen minutes of chaotic, deadly combat, the Confederates drove the Federals from the height, even as the Union forces were already gathering for a counterattack.

Virginia · United States